Les Ferdinand: Football's Toxic Culture, Wage Battles, and Lessons from Newcastle and Spurs (E342)

The High Performance Podcast

High Performance

Sports, Self-improvement, Mindset, Growth Mindset, Health & Fitness, Non-negotiables, Education, Life Lessons, High Performance

4.8 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2025

⏱️ 114 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Les Ferdinand is a football legend known not only for his impressive career on the pitch but also for his strong values off it. A former striker with a career spanning the Premier League, the Championship, and international football, Les has become a respected figure in both sports and life.

In this episode, Les shares his experiences of playing abroad and how adapting to new cultures shaped his career. He opens up about the lessons he learned from setbacks, how he dealt with criticism, and the importance of staying true to his values. Whether it was handling pressure on the pitch or making tough decisions in management, he reflects on the key moments that defined him.

Beyond football, Les discusses the mental challenges athletes face, including self-doubt and imposter syndrome. He talks candidly about his struggles and how he found ways to push through, offering a raw and relatable perspective..

This episode offers an insightful look into the mindset of a footballer who’s faced both the highs and lows of the game.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If you love high performance, each week's episodes are available early, exclusively on the high performance app.
0:05.7	Out now, England rugby coach Steve Borthwick and Tiger Woods' former caddy, Steve Williams.
0:12.4	I always felt whenever I played for England, every time I played it with my last opportunity.
0:16.0	It was last time.
0:16.5	It was never really given what I felt was a fair run in the squad.
0:20.9	I knew what I wanted,
0:21.7	I knew how to get there
0:22.9	and so on and so forth.
0:24.1	But the one thing Jerry Farsis did
0:25.5	was put an arm around me
0:26.5	and I didn't realize
0:27.8	that I needed that.
0:28.9	And when I went in the changing,
0:29.9	I was I sat there and I sat there for ages
0:31.8	and I was sitting there and I was thinking,
0:33.3	you know what? Wherever I've gone, I've just tried to do my best. And that's all you can do sometimes, do your best and hope your best is good enough. That is the voice of Les Ferdinand, a true
0:43.4	Premier League icon, a man who has a unique journey from non-league football to becoming one of
0:48.2	England's top strikers all the way to the border and behind the scenes in the game. Along
0:53.5	the way, just scoring 149 Premier League goals.
0:56.9	He played for some of the biggest clubs in the country,
0:58.7	including Newcastle United and Tottenham.
1:01.2	But his time at QPR was seminal to the career that he enjoyed.
	...

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