Les Ferdinand: Coming from Non-League made me hungry for success

By John Lyons
Les Ferdinand didn’t do too bad as a pro – he notched over 200 goals in 500-plus games, enjoyed hero status at QPR and Newcastle, and represented his country.
Yet it all seemed a million miles away when the teenage striker learned his trade in the rough and tumble school of Non-League with Southall and Hayes in the mid-80s.
“I got sorted out a few times,” admitted the 53-year-old, now director of football at QPR, “but it’s that grounding that helps you to step up and succeed. You soon realise it’s not youth team football and you can’t get away with things.
“You have to step up everything you do. The higher up you go, the quicker things happen and you have to sharpen your reflexes to that level. It was the same in Non-League. When I left Southall and went to Hayes, it was two leagues above and you had to get used to the level.”

As a youngster, Ferdinand had seen his classmate at his school in Shepherd’s Bush, a certain Dennis Wise, get taken on by Southampton. He had a two-week trial with Saints himself before his parents decided the travelling to Slough and back for training was too much. Instead, he joined Viking Sports in Greenford with a bunch of his schoolmates at 14. He said: “The thing that really impressed me was that they had dug-outs by the first-team pitch!”
After a couple of years, it was on to Southall, where he spent a year in the youth team, one in the reserves and one in the first team. Southall were in the Vauxhall-Opel Division Two South at the time and Ferdinand recalls when he received his first ever payment for playing football – £20! “I remember thinking ‘This is the life!” he said. “Back then, it paid for my fares and I had some money left over!”
That final season with Southall was a special one – they reached the FA Vase final at Wembley in 1986, though lost 3-0 to Halesowen Town who were defending their crown. Still, it gave Ferdinand, just 19,a taste of what the big-time could be like.
“It’s every boy’s dream to play at Wembley,” he told The NLP.  “Back in the day when I played there, all you used to see on television was the FA Cup final. You would see the teams in the hotel, getting ready and on the coach to the game. The whole day was about the FA Cup final and you were glued to it.
Sitting in the changing room frequented by professional players, England players, back in the day when they used to have the big communal bath – it wouldn’t be allowed these days! – you felt you were a professional footballer for a day. Unfortunately, Halesowen were better than us on the day. We got caught up in the euphoria of being at Wembley – we didn’t play to our level.”
In his autobiography Sir Les, Ferdinand recalls coach Mick Byrne telling the players before the game that one of them would be fortunate and get the chance to play at Wembley again in the future. “I looked around at all the other players, guys that I really respected, and all I could think about was which one of them was Mick talking about,” he said. “I never for one moment thought it would be me.”
But before Ferdinand hit the big-time, there was another stop-off in Non-League – at Hayes. “The Southall team split apart after the Vase final,” he said. “We had a fall-out with the directors, the boys were disappointed with how we had been treated. I was sitting at home in the summer thinking ‘where am I going to go next?’.
“Then I got a call from George Goode, the Hayes manager. They were looking for a striker because they’d just lost Byron Walton to Wycombe. I did a bit of pre-season, got in the team early doors and played most of the season. I scored a few goals (19) and QPR started looking. “I always say that I was at Southall for three years and they got nothing and I was at Hayes for six months and they got £600,000!”
That lump sum came in 1995 when QPR, who had bought Ferdinand for £30,000 eight years earlier, sold him to Newcastle – and Hayes pocketed ten per cent of the £6m fee. It proved a canny bit of business. “For anyone who plays Non-League football and understands how it works and the finances, you’re really pleased for a club when they sell a player and get something for him,” he said.
“Sometimes I sit back and think Southall should have got some of that money too, but at least it stayed in Non-League. ”Ferdinand also owes his dad Austin some of the credit for helping him make the most of his ability. “My dad came to a few cup finals I played in and people told him that if I took my football seriously, I would have a real chance of making it,” he said.
“He said ‘give it your best shot and if you don’t make it, you don’t make it – but at least you’ll know’. I knuckled down, didn’t miss any games and within six months QPR came calling.”

If his Non-League days had laid the foundations for his future success, alongside an eye-opening season-long loan with Turkish club Besiktas in his early QPR days, it would be wrong to say that all wassweetness and light. Back in the mid-80s, the spectre of racism hung over the game and it was something that a young Ferdinand had to get used to.
He recalls games at Yeovil Town and Wisbech Town in particular in his Southall days when it was particularly evident. “Back then, it was an acceptable part of football unfortunately,” he said. “There were no repercussions for Wisbech or Yeovil. It was part and parcel of football, you had to suck it up and get on with it. It’s not just football’s problem, it’s society’s. The good thing now is that we want to do something about it.”
Racism aside, Ferdinand is appreciative of the role Non-League played in his life. When you talk to him, it’s clear that he loves football – whatever the standard. “For me, they were just enjoyable times playing football,” he said. “You play football because you love it more than anything else. If I hadn’t been a professional with all the pressure that put on my body, I would still be playing somewhere now!”
As for whether QPR would welcome Non-League recruits, Ferdinand is clear. “The way football is going nowadays, more and more clubs are looking in the Non-League arena,” he added. “We certainly are. If you do a fans’ forum, you’ll be asked ‘are you still looking in Non-League?’.
“Everyone is looking for the next Jamie Vardy, everyone is looking for a gem. The key for players is that they have to love what they’re doing. At Southall and Hayes, we had a good group of players and I was like a sponge, soaking everything up. I was willing to learn whatever Ineeded to know.” It certainly took him a long way.