Les Ferdinand Player Profile

Place Of Birth:

Date Of Birth:08/12/66

Position: Striker

Nationality: English

Former Clubs: Hayes, Brentford, QPR, Besiktas, Newcastle United, Spurs, West Ham, Leicester City, Bolton Wanderers

Les Ferdinand put pen to paper on a 6 month contract on the 6th January after activating a clause in his contract at Bolton Wanderers which allowed him to leave the Reebok Stadium.

Ferdinand is part of a famous family ties in the game where his cousin Rio is currently playing his trade with Manchester United, and many Old Trafford insiders believe he is the man to replace Roy Keane as captain. Les is also cousins with Rio's younger brother Anton, who is at West Ham United.

Sir Les began his career with non league Hayes before securing a £15,000 switch to QPR in 1987.

Les struggled in his first couple of seasons in West London and had loans spells with neighbours Brentford before jetting off to Turkey for a spell with Besiktas. Les became a fans favourite abroad after scoring 14 goals in 24 appearances under the management of Gordon Milne. He became the 1st Englishman to play in Turkey.

Ferdinand then came back to QPR and became a regular in the side and was the leading goal scorer for the hoops 3 seasons running. He netted 94 times in 163 appearances.

In 1993, Les made the first of his 17 appearances for England when he came off the bench against San Marino at the old Wembley stadium.

Then in July 1995 Ferdinand completed a switch to Premiership giants Newcastle United for £6million. Ferdinand became famous for being part of "that" Newcastle side that did battle with Manchester United for the Premiership title. With David Ginola supplying the ammunition, Ferdinand and his goalscoring partner Fastino Asprilla scored goals for fun. With the arrival of Alan Shearer in the summer of 1996, Ferdinand left Newcastle the following year to join Spurs for £6million.

Ferdinand picked up a Worthington Cup winners medal in 1999 after Spurs beat Leicester. But he was also a loser in 2001 when Blackburn beat Spurs at the Millennium Stadium 2-1. He was the 10,000th Premiership goal against Fulham in 2001 and after receiving a cheque for £10,000, he insisted on donating it to charity.

In the transfer window of January 2003, Glenn Roeder swooped for the services of Ferdinand with the aim of keeping West Ham in the Premiership.

They failed and Ferdinand's next port of call was the Walkers Stadium where, despite scoring 12 goals he was unable to keep the Foxes in the Premiership.

Sam Allerdyce came shouting and despite what seemed a promising start to his career, Ferdinand failed to settle up north and had his contract "mutually terminated".

Reading beat off stiff competition from Southampton to land Sir Les and Royals fans will be hoping Ferdinand can score the goals to fire Reading to the top flight for the first time in there 132 year history.