Rio Ferdinand has taken a swipe at former England team-mate John Terry in a social media row over who is the Premier League’s best-ever centre-half.
Ferdinand placed himself at the top of the list when picking his top five with the help of Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk on BT Sport’s Between the Lines programme.
Terry was fifth on Ferdinand’s list and the ex-Chelsea captain retweeted a Twitter post from a football fan claiming he was ‘The Greatest’.
@JohnTerry26 The moment one has to start pushing their own records and stats it’s really time to start addressing the fragile ego.Your lucky I even put you in the top 5 after the racism case with my brother so be thankful you made it.
— Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) May 26, 2022
Ferdinand responded on Twitter by saying: “@JohnTerry26 The moment one has to start pushing their own records and stats it’s really time to start addressing the fragile ego.
“Your lucky I even put you in the top 5 after the racism case with my brother so be thankful you made it.”
Terry replied further in a tweet, saying: “A fragile Ego is putting yourself at Number 1 @rioferdy5. Thanks for putting me in your top 5.”
Ferdinand’s reference to the allegations that Terry racially abused his brother, former QPR defender Anton Ferdinand, in 2011 revealed time has not healed the hurt caused by the incident.
A fragile Ego is putting yourself at Number 1 @rioferdy5 Thanks for putting me in your top 5 🏆👍🏻
— John Terry (@JohnTerry26) May 26, 2022
Terry was accused of using racist language towards Anton during Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat to QPR at Loftus Road in October 2011 and was fined £220,000 by the Football Association and banned for four matches.
He was cleared in court after being charged by the Crown Prosecution Service, but was stripped of the England captaincy by the Football Association and soon after retired from international football.
Ferdinand and Terry have barely spoken since the allegations and the debate has clearly opened up old wounds.
BT Sport pundit Ferdinand placed himself at the top of his list, with former Manchester United team-mates Nemanja Vidic and Jaap Stam sandwiched by Van Dijk, ahead of Terry in fifth.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel