Rio Ferdinand--Five Star--The Biography Read Online Free PDF Page B

Saturday and Sunday mornings, Rio was showing off a different kind of talent. Schools league organiser and coach Dave Goodwin was astounded by the number of club scouts who were turning up to watch the youngster. It could only be a matter of time before one of them snapped him up.

Chapter 3
OUT OF ORDER
    W hen Rio was 14 something happened to one of his Bluecoat friends which is still reverberating around Britain to this day. For 23 April 1993 was the day when a bunch of racist thugs murdered schoolboy Stephen Lawrence at a bus stop near his home in Eltham, south-east London. Rio recalled: ‘The whole school came to a standstill when we were told. Stephen was three years older than me but we used to mess around together and have a laugh playing daft games on each other. It was a terrible shock when he died.’
    Dave Goodwin noticed the effects of the murder on his young star player. ‘Rio couldn’t stop talking about it because he took it so badly. I told him he had to let go but he said, “But I knew him and he was a nice person. Why do these things happen?”’ Rio needed a father figure to give advice and his coach was that person.
    As Rio vividly remembered: ‘It was mad. The whole day got frozen. People were coming in saying, “Stephen Lawrence got stabbed.” He was a quiet, nice boy, into art and music. He had a purpose and wanted to do something in life. For him to be taken away that way seemed so unreal. People didn’t know what was going on, or why.’
    There was a lot of anger among black students at Bluecoat. Some talked of taking revenge on the white youths suspected of involvement. But Rio knew that revenge would serve no real purpose. He diplomatically tried to encourage his seething school mates to calm down. He knew from first-hand experience that violence served little purpose. He’d survived on the Friary Estate by treading a thin line between the good guys and the bad guys. There was no point in starting a race war.
    Years later Rio had some very strong advice for young people who found themselves victims of racism at school or in the streets: ‘At school you’ve got to tell your teachers. If they don’t sort it out, tell your parents, get them down to the school and tell the head teacher. It’s got to be sorted out straight away. If you ignore it, it can escalate and become worse and worse. If you don’t deal with it, the bullies will think you are accepting it.’
    The murder of Stephen Lawrence provoked talk about a wide range of racial issues. Rio knew that for years young black men with flashy cars had been stopped by police more than any other group of people. Later, when Rio took delivery of his first car, he was stopped by police within minutes of driving on to his manor. It happened repeatedly, and they’d always ask, ‘Why have you got this car?’ and ‘Where did you get the money?’ As Rio says: ‘There is a view that a black man driving a car is a drug dealer or something.’ After the tragic murder ofStephen Lawrence, Rio avidly read up about the lives of his two latest idols – Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King. More than ever he wanted to understand where all this hatred came from.
     
    By this time Dave Goodwin, as well as being Blackheath and District Schools League organiser and coach, was also an analyst for manager Lennie Lawrence at Middlesbrough. In order to keep on eye on Boro’s future opponents he often went straight from Saturday-morning school games to watch senior matches, mostly in League Division One. Before long he began taking Rio along with him, which proved an education for the youngster. ‘Dave would tell me, “Watch him, he’s a good player, and him too, look at the formation, see what they’re doing at corners.” So I got a bit of knowledge about the game, and that was really good for me.’
    The first club to make a proper approach for Rio and persuade him to consider joining them was Queens Park Rangers. Rio trained for a few months at