Rio Ferdinand on his gangland film and his cars

“I would say, ‘However much money I make or if I make it in football, I am always going to live here.’ But you do evolve and move away.”

Back in those days, Ferdinand remembers being driven around in his dad’s bright yellow VW Beetle, before he was scouted and signed by West Ham, aged 17. That’s when he bought his first car. “It was a [Ford] Fiesta 1.3 Freestyle,” he says. “It was like the beast of all cars. I loved it. I had just received a £4,000 signing-on fee from West Ham United, so I went into the showroom and said, ‘I have this amount of money to spend, what can I get?’ The dealer pointed out the car, which was not brand new, and I said, ‘I will have that’.”

The problem was, Ferdinand says he had never even heard about insurance. The dealer suggested he call his mum. “The insurance was two grand. As a young footballer, I was loaded with extra premiums. Fortunately, my mum was able to help me out and I was able to pay it back, monthly. But I had the car.”

Ferdinand wasn’t left impecunious for too long. After five years with West Ham, he was signed by Leeds United for the then record-breaking fee of £18m in 2000. The following year he became club captain before being sold to Manchester United for £30m in 2002.

With the moves came the cars. He has driven the full gamut of footballers’ bling-mobiles: from a Bentley Continental GT to a Cadillac Escalade via a souped-up Overfinch Range Rover. “I also went through the phase of having American jeeps and the Ferrari 360 Spider,” he recalls. “You just had to go fast in that Spider. It was like a go-kart.”

It also attracted the attention of the police. He has been banned four times from driving, on one occasion averaging a speed of 105mph and being fined £1,500. His off-the-pitch antics almost signalled the end of his career before it had really begun, and he admits the money and fame went to his head: “From 17 to 20, I was out all the time,” he says. “I wanted to enjoy the opportunities. When someone would say, ‘Come along to the opening of this or that club for a free night’, I would go. It would be irresistible.

“Fortunately, I had a man, called Dave Goodwin, who was my old district manager when I was 12, who said, ‘What are you doing?’ My mum and dad also said, ‘Stop going out or you’ll be on the scrapheap’.”

He says his choice of car reflects a new-found maturity. “I like comfort driving and something to look nice. The Aston Martin allows you to cruise. You are sitting in comfort and I like the process of driving a good car.”