Rio Ferdinand was recently caught out after being asked a question about Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk.
The 43-year-old, who lifted six Premier League titles during a trophy-laden 12 year spell at Manchester United, was taking part in a lie detector test on his YouTube channel Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE when the topic of conversation switched.
After being quizzed about Erling Haaland, Kalvin Phillips and Declan Rice's future at West Ham, presenter Joel Beya asked Ferdinand if he thought Van Dijk is better than he was.
The former Manchester United centre-back replied 'no', but the the man in charge of the lie detector put his thumb down.
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Despite the polygraph test suggesting he was lying, Ferdinand insisted he was telling the truth before claiming that “no one plays” like him anymore in the modern game.
“The other day, my son was watching a video on YouTube of me. It was 15 minutes long,” the former England international said. “I sat down and watched about nine minutes and I was thinking ‘no one does that. No one plays like that no more.’
“There isn’t any centre-back that I’ve seen in recent years that plays like that."
Ferdinand added: "Virgil’s top. When his career is finished you can do this (compare).”
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Joel Beya, who was asking Ferdinand the questions throughout, claimed that Van Dijk would not have six Premier League titles to his name when he hangs up his boots.
He responded, saying: "You said it. He’s the best now. He’s making it look easy.”
You can check out the full video on the Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE YouTube channel below. It's well worth a watch.
Ferdinand was recently named alongside Virgil van Dijk in a fan-voted Premier League all-time XI.
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To celebrate 30 years of Premier League action, the guys over at BT Sport decided to mark the special anniversary by running a poll asking people to pick their greatest ever team.
A total of 200,302 people voted and well, some choices have gone down better than others.
One of the biggest talking points was the back four. Gary Neville, who won eight Premier League titles – more than any other defender nominated – slotted in at right-back.
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Rio Ferdinand was then joined at centre-back by Virgil van Dijk, who earned 41.5% of the vote to beat John Terry (29.4%), Nemanja Vidic (19.3%) and Vincent Kompany (9.8%) to earn his place in the all-time XI.
It was a decision that Ferdinand reacted to live on BT Sport.
"I feel honoured to be selected in teams like this and one thing every player in that team will have had in common is a work ethic," he said. "That is the foundation to be considered for a team like this. I'm proud, definitely."
When the subject of former teammate Nemanja Vidic being left out emerged, Ferdinand added: "That's a big problem for me. He [Vidic] will be phoning me later, don't worry about that.
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"On paper, we [Van Dijk] would have worked well together. There won't have been many players getting in behind us with the pace we would have had, I know that for a fact."
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVETopics: Rio Ferdinand, Manchester United, Virgil Van Dijk, Liverpool, Premier League
