Dancing On Ice’s Anton Ferdinand praises show for bring back ‘his spark’ as he ‘lost identity’ with Premier League exit
ANTON Ferdinand says he piled on the pounds and lost himself after retiring from football but admits Dancing On Ice has put the spark back in his life.
The former West Ham defender struggled to come to terms with life after the Premier League when he quit in 2019.
But taking on the ITV skating show has helped him feel like an athlete again and even boosted his bum!
Talking about how his body has changed after signing up to the series, he laughed: “I had a skaters bum before, I had it when I played football and this is just enhancing it!
“I’ve definitely lost weight. When I retired I could see my body fat going up in places where I wouldn’t normally have it, you know?
“I like to think that’s starting to come down a bit now but I’m nowhere near the type of fitness I had when I was playing football.
“I’ve still got a way to go to get back to that. That fitness when I was playing was like thoroughbred s**t, like top level.
“And I’ve come to the realisation through training here, I will never reach that elite fitness again.
“However, I need to find what my elite fitness is now, what my thoroughbred feel is now because it’s obviously not gonna be the same.
“My body ain’t as robust as it was before having not trained properly for six years.
“But one thing I’ll always do is push myself to the end. I’ve always been like that and I’ll continue to be like that.”
He might have left his playing days behind him but Anton, 39, hasn’t quit football altogether as he now mentors young players coming through the ranks at West Ham Football Club.
And it’s that connection with the game which has saved him from suffering mentally.
Anton explained: “I think if you speak to most sports people, when they leave their sport and they’re retired, they lose a part of themselves, they lose a part of their identity.
“And that definitely happened to me.
“Even though I’m still doing mentoring and doing a lot with West Ham’s academy, there’s still that competitor in you, there’s still that side of you that you lose.
“To feel just a little bit like Anton again has been fantastic. The structure, every day knowing I’ve got something to do, being an athlete again.
“That’s really been fantastic for me personally.”
‘THEY’RE GIVING ME GRIEF’
And he admits that it’s not just his weight loss which has made him feel like a footballer again, it’s also the cheeky grief he’s getting from his former teammates.
Anton admits they have been taking the mickey on their WhatsApp group.
He laughed: “Yeah, 100% they’re giving me grief!
“The week I was in Wolverine attire was definitely a week that the banter in WhatsApp groups were flying about, which is to be expected.
“However, I’ve done this with an open mind to embrace anything that comes my way. And the lads know that I’m like that. So they’ve been fantastic.
“But having a WhatsApp group, especially with my West Hand teammates, when banter’s high in the group, it feels like the changing room again, which is fantastic.
“And if I’ve had to be the butt of the joke, then so be it!”
‘I’M GOING TO BE MYSELF’
Despite loving his time on the ice Anton knows he’s in a relegation battle after narrowing avoid the boot on Sunday.
He wound up in the show’s first skate off against Love Island’s Chris Taylor, with the judges deciding to save him.
But Anton says he’s taking the hit on the chin and won’t let it put him off as he prepares to take to the ice again this weekend.
He said: “I’m just gonna be myself, if I’m being honest. I hope myself is good enough for people to vote.
“I want to be my authentic self and if that’s good enough, great. If it isn’t, it isn’t. You know, as long as my wife and my kids and my family are proud of me, I’ll be happy no matter what happens.”
‘FOOTBALL HAS A LONG WAY TO GO’
In 2020 Anton released a documentary, Football, Racism and Me, which exposed the abuse he’s suffered within the game.
And it explored the fall out from an incident involving former England captain John Terry who was caught racially abusing him during a game in 2011.
It’s been five years and Anton reckons we’re no further forward when it comes to racism within football.
He said: “I think we’ve got a long, long way to go. The social media abuse I think ain’t where it needs to be, it is still very, very bad.
“I think the football world, along with the social media companies need to start taking some type of responsibility around this for a simple fact that people that play the game or in the public eye, if they tweet something or retweet something, there’s consequences for us.
“We are held accountable, but people can come onto the platform and abuse us willy nilly and there’s no consequences for them.
“That, for me, tells you that there’s something wrong.
“I think until social media companies and people with power in football listen, it’s never going to get better.”
He feels so passionately about helping young players in the game who are being racially abused by fans online that he’s considering another documentary to shine a light on the issue.
Anton explained: “I would love to do a documentary around social media and racism in football because it’s something that’s important to me.
“I like to do stuff that’s educational. My last documentary wasn’t a me versus anyone situation.
“It wasn’t just about me, it wasn’t just about John Terry either. So I would love to do something that’s educational and show people how we deal with it.
“As we know, all forms of discrimination is a learned behaviour. You’re not born with it.
“This is why the second part of my life after retirement is around mentoring. Mentoring is my passion because whatever a young footballer is gonna go through, I’ve been through it and more, whether that’s fights with managers, arguments with fans, racism, whatever. I’ve been through it all.
“I just think I’d be stupid not to try and help others that are going to go on the same journey I’ve been on.”