After graduating from East London’s academy at age 9, retired football ace Anton claims to have only been aware of soccer. He says: “When you retire from football, or any sport I’d imagine, you lose a bit of your identity and nothing ever prepares you for that. That’s what’s happened to me.
I really feel like I’m being myself again, and if there’s anything I can say about Dancing on Ice and how beneficial this process has been for me, it’s that I really feel that way. Nothing compares to the adrenaline of playing on the pitch, according to Anton, 39, who claimed he was fortunate to have gone from playing for his football team to finding employment.
” All of a sudden that’s gone and you never get that again, “he says”. All I knew from five or six was to be a footballer. Everything as a footballer is laid out – what to do, what to eat, how to sleep, how to recover.
“But when you’ve retired you’ve got to put your own structure in your day, which you’ve never been taught to do, and that is what I found the hardest”. Anton credits his wife Lucy Cornell and their three young children with picking him up when he was down.
He says: “My wife has said to me before, ‘ Get yourself up, get out, even if you’re going to the Costa on the high street. ‘
” She’d say, ‘ The minute you start getting out of the house is the minute you’re going to start feeling better’. He said: “Dancing on Ice and acquiring new skills were life-affirming.”
He says:” Standing in the tunnel, getting ready to go out to perform on the ice and then finishing, it was very exhilarating for me that first week. “Anton, who is 40 next month, reflects:” I don’t feel like I’m turning 40 in my mind but my body was telling me a few things over the last two months of training. I was in my 60s when I started to feel the wear and tear from playing football.
Anton, who also played for QPR, Reading, Southend and Sunderland, was born in Peckham, South London, and is the younger brother of ex-England and Manchester United defender Rio. Anton claims their mother Janice, who passed away in 2017 at the age of 58, is with him in spirit and that Rio has been supporting him since Dancing on Ice’s audience.
Irish Janice, who has a significant impact on his life, was deeply influenced by racism when he was a child and married their father, Julian, who was a native of St Lucia. She’ll be there in spirit, absolutely. She’ll be with me all the way and if I fall she’ll be laughing, “he says.
Before his first live performance, Anton claims his children wrote him messages because they were pleased with how well-educated he was. My son wrote, ‘ Make sure you’re doing everything you always told me to do, which is to work hard and be the best version of yourself’, “he says.
But he hasn’t changed his diet or exercise regime. Recalling Rio’s advice before his first FA Cup final, he says:” He said to me, ‘ Anton, don’t change a thing. Play the game, not the occasion, because if you play the occasion, the occasion becomes too big for you’.
“So I like to keep things as normal as possible”! Instead, he has a basket of what he calls ‘ comforts ‘ backstage, including his favourite chocolate Aero, Maryland cookies, giant strawberry Haribos and Red Bull. Anton reveals that Rio has no chance of turning on the ice.
He says: “He’ll be scared that he’ll hurt himself! It’s been actually really, really nice having him in the audience, without having the pressure of him doing it too.
Rio would never, ever say that when we were playing, but because we are both retired, I can say that he had always wanted to be better or as good as him while we were playing, but that never would have been the case. “Aside from competing, Anton would love to produce more documentaries like the BAFTA-nominated BBC One programme Anton Ferdinand: Football, Racism, And Me.
But, while he says it had a positive effect, he still experiences racism. He says:” I still get comments on my social media. It’s sad but a part of my life because I’ve just grown accustomed to it right now. Social media is used by the new generation to spread prejudice. I received it on Twitter, but I also got it in person while walking down the street.
Tonight at 6:25 p.m., ITV will broadcast Dancing On Ice.
Source: Mirror
Leave a Reply