Rio's star quality adds to fine work of Foundation

It isn’t every day at Belleek Park when in walks a six-time Premier League, two-time League Cup and one-time Champions League winner who played 81 times for England, including at three World Cups.

It was shortly before 3.30pm last Tuesday week when Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand arrived at the home of Ballina Town Football Club to pay a visit that the young members of the club, and to be fair, some of the older members, will never forget.

Rio is best known for his 12-year, trophy-laden stint with the Red Devils but began his career at West Ham Uunited, had a spell on loan at Bournemouth, moved to Leeds United and finished his career with Queens Park Rangers. Since his playing career ended, he has carved out a successful media career and is a regular pundit on TNT Sports.

Rio was in town with his wife Kate as part of his work with the Rio Ferdinand Foundation, who held a Beyond the Ball event at Sligo Rovers on Wednesday that proved a massive success. The event celebrates the Foundation’s programme alongside the International Fund For Ireland, which aims to unite young people from different communities through their love of the 'beautiful game' and ended with a showcase football match between youngsters from the southern border counties and Northern Ireland.

But back at Ballina Town, who have frequently collaborated with the Foundation over the last number of years, Rio was every bit as calm, laid back and collected as he was leading the defensive line for Manchester United throughout their three-in-a-row years. It was as though Nemanja Vidic was stood opposite him such was the trademark coolness that Rio showed as he took pictures, signed jerseys and was very generous with his time for all in attendance.

He even took the time to give Western People snapper John O’Grady one of the more memorable photos he has ever taken as Rio posed under his iconic number 5 in the Ballina Town dressing room. This was despite John being a Liverpool fan!

Getting Rio to Ballina was also a massive accomplishment for Foundation coordinator and local lad Dan Gorman, as well as Foundation CEO Gary Stannett, who do incredible work behind the scenes in making the good work happen for the Foundation. The pair deserve the utmost credit and there is plenty more to come for the Foundation in this region – watch this space.

Rio and Kate continued their visit to Ballina with a few more stops around the town, learning to pull a pint at Harrison’s Pub along the way – Sir Alex’s hairdryer treatment paled in comparison to what the locals might have had to say if he poured a bad Guinness! They went home with plenty of North Mayo goodies in the suitcase – Ballina Chamber CEO Mags Downey-Martin presented the Ferdinand’s with a Taste of Ballina hamper containing the best of local produce.

Rio spoke to the Western People during his visit to Belleek Park about the importance of facilities such as the ones surrounding him at Ballina Town.

“I love it, it reminds me of when I was a kid playing football, reminds me of nice memories. It is always good to come to places like this and to celebrate people who put a lot into the community and with young people,” he said.

“You can thank the guys involved in the club here today that give their time, effort and all the resources they have to these young people. I needed this when I was a kid and it is always nice to come and give back for that.

“I was pleasantly surprised by the level of the facilities here. I look back at the conditions I played in as a kid, it wasn’t as good as this. We never had an astroturf pitch or had a pitch that looked immaculate and was being taken care of by people and this is being taken care of. There’s a lot of good going on here and it is nice to highlight when there is something like that.” Rio said it was an easy decision that the Foundation would become so heavily involved in Ireland and particularly the west of Ireland. Ferdinand has Irish roots on his mother’s side and was even approached at one point by the FAI with a view to representing the Republic of Ireland.

“My mum’s Irish, she has Irish in her blood and my wife Kate has Irish in her blood as well. But I think there’s a lot of parallels between the community I grew up in and the background I’m from, there’s parallels here in different parts of Ireland as well, not just here.

“Our ethos is about giving young people opportunity and chances and building confidence through young people. Wherever that may be, if there’s open arms and there is a willingness from places outside the UK, we’re always up for that conversation and here in Ireland it has been very, very welcoming and the people have been great. It is a no-brainer for us.” Rio said he feels that football works as a unifier to bring people together and to help individuals build confidence in themselves.

“I think we all have a common love of the game and it enables people of different ages, different backgrounds, different ethnicities to come together and to have that conversation and share the passion of the game.

“That’s the starting point for us to get into those young people, connect to them and help them get back on the road of positivity and hopefully, re-education but also opportunities in terms of work at a later stage.

“The confidence building at the beginning for any young person is huge because we can talk about the best players in the world, when they lose confidence, they’re not the best players in the world.

“That goes straight into society as well. Without confidence, you struggle to achieve, you struggle to have any desire, any dreams and we’re trying to be that bridge to connect people to that confidence to start.” Rio said he is hoping to ramp up the work the Foundation is doing and to keep scaling up the impact they are having.

“We do a lot with young girls and my wife Kate is getting more involved now to engage young women as well, which is so important. But it is important to continue what we’re doing. I think in the world we’re living in now, where there’s an economic crisis for a lot of people in the world, to be able to keep raising money, raising awareness and to keep impacting young people.

“I think if we can sit here in another 10 years’ time, that’ll be a success in itself.”