Rio Ferdinand’s dressing room rivalry with Ronaldo got so intense it was ‘borderline bullying’

Rio Ferdinand has revealed that his dressing room battles with Cristiano Ronaldo became so intense that his ultra-competitive former Manchester United teammate was on the verge of tears, because he couldn’t beat him at table tennis.

The England legend, who is in Australia to promote anti-abuse social media app WeAre8, was asked if it’s true that Ronaldo couldn’t deal with being ‘crushed’ by him at ping pong while at Old Trafford .

He was quick to confirm that the story is in the money, and he had a good laugh as he described the scenes in the locker room.

Me and a guy named Quinton Fortune, another [Manchester United] teammate, we used to tease him a lot,’ the 44-year-old said of his clashes with Ronaldo at the Kyle and Jackie O. Radio show on Friday.

The 44-year-old England legend said he used to crush Ronaldo “from all sides” before the ultra-competitive Portuguese icon upped his game and started beating him.

“He was a lot younger than us at the time, maybe bordering on bullying, but he was just trying to, like, build it up, develop that resilience.”

‘We used to play every other day before training, as part of the warm-up. I used to squash him all over the place.

‘He hit me… it was him and me, [ranked] one and two, like Federer and Nadal. If it was televised, it would have broken records.

“I used to almost cry and that, it was very competitive.”

The conversation turned to Ferdinand’s charity work and he seemed a bit confused when asked by the hosts what award he received from Prince William last November.

‘The O.B.E. I think I got the OBE. CBE? MBE? Fernando said.

Next is a knighthood, that’s next. I don’t know what I have to do to get there.

For the record, he was awarded an OBE for his charitable work at a ceremony at Windsor Castle, and he dedicated the honor to his late mother, Janice.

Ferdinand was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Prince William last November in recognition of his charity work, but seemed confused about which honor he received during an interview on Australian radio.

Earlier on his journey Down Under, Ferdinand revealed that he has banned his children from TikTok and Snapchat, though he admitted that doing so has sometimes left them ‘on the outskirts’ of their friendship groups.

“My 11-year-old daughter (Tia), all her friends from her class are on TikTok and Snapchat, and I said, ‘No, you’re not going to do it,'” the father of four, who is expecting another soon, said.

I’ve done it, and I know what’s being pushed and it’s not right. I walked past her bedroom when I first let her have it, and some of the songs she was singing I thought, “Wow, sometimes I don’t even say the words in those songs.”

The BT Sport commentator said his family, which includes his wife Kate and son Cree, 2, as well as children Lorenz, 16, Tate, 14 and Tia, 11, by his first wife Rebecca Ellison (who died of breast cancer in 2015) have had discussions around the dinner table about social media.

The Three Lions legend (pictured in Sydney this week) revealed that he has banned his children from TikTok and Snapchat to protect them from online abuse.

And it led him to realize that it can even affect his friendships, not that he’s changing his mind.

“You don’t know what they’re getting, (but) you know, it’s not quite right, and it’s not for her (Tia) age group,” Ferdinand said.

“So I stopped him from using social media, and now the conversation (about social media use) is now like a table discussion.

“And I feel sorry for her, because she’s left out of a lot of the conversations her friends are having, and because of that she’s almost on the fringes of the groups she’s in.”