Anton Ferdinand was spoilt for choice really when the former West Ham United defender was asked to name the ‘best’ player he had ever shared a pitch with in his long Premier League career.
While at Upton Park, the former England Under-21 international wore the famous claret and blue kit alongside such luminaries as Yossi Benayoun, Javier Mascherano, Scott Parker, Michael Carrick and Mark Noble.
Anton Ferdinand, who rose through the ranks at West Ham United like his older brother Rio, also had the luxury of representing his country at youth level alongside the likes of Leighton Baines, Darren Bent, Ashley Young, Theo Walcott, Glen Johnson and Aaron Lennon.
Yet, there is one player who stands out above the rest.
While the West Ham never saw the best of the ‘unbelievable’ Mascherano, the same could not be said of the other Argentine who arrived during one of the most unexpected and contentious double-deals in Premier League history.
Captain Marvel Noble admits that Carlos Tevez saved the Hammers from relegation with a heroic run towards the end of the 2006/07 season.
And Ferdinand, who was also part of the side who pulled off an iconic escape from the drop under Alan Curbishley, feels that none of his former teammates for club and country can rival a man who would go on to win the Premier League, the Champions League and a pair of Serie A titles.
Anton Ferdinand names Carlos Tevez as his best-ever West Ham United teammate
Ferdinand also named Nicolas Anelka as his toughest ever opponent – albeit the Chelsea version – though he could not choose between Didier Drogba or Yakubu when selecting the ‘strongest’ striker who roughed him up on a Premier League pitch.
They say good things come to those who wait. And the Hammers really had to wait for Carlos Tevez to get off the mark.
It took him 20 games to open his account. Seven goals in his last ten appearances would cement Tevez’s legacy as a bonafide Upton Park icon, though. It was he, of course, who secured survival with a final day winner against future employers Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Curbishley recalls the advice which transformed Tevez’s fortunes, sparking his transformation from a prodigiously hard-working but goal-shy attacker into one of the game’s most complete forwards.
“It was quite simple. We had an interpreter attached to Carlos, and I sat him down one day and showed him the pitch. I divided it into three sections, the attacking third, the midfield third, and the defensive third, and I started giving him marks out of 10 for what he was doing,” Curbishley told James Richardson’s Totally Extra podcast.
“I gave him eight out of 10 [for the] defensive third. I gave him nine out of 10 midfield third. And I gave him three out of 10 in the attacking third, because he was never in the attacking third!
“And I said to him, ‘how are you going to start scoring goals if you never go in the attacking third?’ I paired him with Bobby Zamora, and he started scoring.”
Darren Bent feels the Luis Suarez-esque Tevez is ‘underrated’
Tevez opened his account in a thrilling 4-3 defeat by arch rivals Tottenham Hotspur. By Curbishley’s recollection, that was also the game which lit the fuse under West Ham’s survival push, despite the heartbreaking nature of that last-gasp concession.
“He’s underrated. People forget [how good he was],” the aforementioned Darren Bent recalled on talkSPORT after watching Tevez approach the 2025 edition of SoccerAid with the same steely hunger he displayed throughout much of his professional career.
“I remember playing against him when he was at West Ham. He had that run at the end of the season where he basically saved them.
“But he had this knack of just going past people, a little bit [Luis] Suarez-y. When the ball goes off peoples shins and you go ‘how has he got out of that?
“And he used to work so hard to win the ball back.”
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