Les Ferdinand
Les Ferdinand is an Acton-born striker who scored 149 Premier League goals for six clubs. He was the PFA Players' Player of the Year in 1996, the season Newcastle let a 12-point lead go, and he scored the Premier League's 10,000th goal in 2001.
- Clubs
- Hayes (1986 to 1987), Queens Park Rangers (1987 to 1995), Newcastle United (1995 to 1997), Tottenham Hotspur (1997 to 2003), West Ham United (2003), Leicester City (2003 to 2004), Bolton Wanderers (2004 to 2005), Reading (2005), Watford (2005 to 2006)
- Premier League
- 351 appearances, 149 goals
- Honours
- League Cup 1999, PFA Players' Player of the Year 1996
- International
- England, 17 caps, 5 goals
- Fantasy price
- £9.5m in 1995/96
Who did he play for?
QPR bought him from non-league Hayes in 1987 for £50,000. After loans at Brentford and Beşiktaş, where he won the Turkish Cup, he scored 80 league goals for QPR, including 20 in the first Premier League season and 24 in 1994/95.
Newcastle paid £6 million for him in the summer of 1995. He scored 25 league goals in 1995/96, when Newcastle led by 12 points in January and finished second, and Pelé presented him with the PFA award. The next season he and Alan Shearer scored 49 between them and Newcastle finished second again.
Tottenham paid £6 million in July 1997. Injuries limited him to 54 league games in his first three seasons, but he started the 1999 League Cup final win over Leicester and scored 19 league goals across 2000/01 and 2001/02.
He joined West Ham in January 2003, then Leicester, where he scored 12 in 2003/04 and was voted the players' and supporters' player of the year. Short spells at Bolton, Reading and Watford followed, and he retired in 2006.
He won 17 England caps between 1993 and 1998 and went to Euro 96 and the 1998 World Cup without playing.
The moment: Fulham, 15 December 2001
White Hart Lane, Saturday 15 December 2001. Nineteen minutes into Tottenham's game against Fulham, Darren Anderton drove a low cross to the near post and Ferdinand turned it in.
It was the 10,000th goal in Premier League history, and his 149th. The sponsors gave £10,000 to a charity of his choice. He set up Anderton for the second and went off to applause after an hour. Tottenham 4-0 Fulham.
His own favourite goal came earlier: a long-range strike for QPR against Manchester United at Loftus Road on 10 December 1994.
Why the streets won't forget
On Tyneside he was Sir Les. His 1997 autobiography carries the title.
He scored 50 goals in 84 games for Newcastle across two runner-up seasons. He has said since that he left too early.
He scored Premier League goals for six clubs, and hat-tricks for three of them: QPR, Newcastle and Tottenham. Only Craig Bellamy has scored for more.
He was Tottenham's striker coach from 2008 to 2014, then QPR's director of football from 2015 until he stepped down in June 2023. He joined the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame in February 2026.
Which seasons can you draft him in?
Nine. His three QPR seasons come before the game starts, and his 2003/04 season at Leicester doesn't make the game's squads.
| Season | Club | Price | His real league season | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995/96 | Newcastle United | £9.5m | 37 games, 25 goals | Pick him |
| 1996/97 | Newcastle United | £10.0m | 31 games, 16 goals, 8 assists | Pick him |
| 1997/98 | Tottenham Hotspur | £6.5m | 21 games, 5 goals | Leave him out |
| 1998/99 | Tottenham Hotspur | £5.5m | 24 games, 5 goals | Leave him out |
| 1999/00 | Tottenham Hotspur | £5.0m | 9 games, 2 goals | Leave him out |
| 2000/01 | Tottenham Hotspur | £6.5m | 28 games, 10 goals | Worth a look |
| 2001/02 | Tottenham Hotspur | £6.5m | 25 games, 9 goals | Worth a look |
| 2002/03 | West Ham United | £5.5m | 14 games, 2 goals, after 11 games and 2 goals for Tottenham | Leave him out |
| 2004/05 | Bolton Wanderers | £5.0m | 12 games, 1 goal | Leave him out |
In 1995/96 he is £2.0m cheaper than Shearer and £0.5m cheaper than Fowler, with 25 goals in 37 games.
Want him in your retro fantasy football team for 1995/96? He'll cost you £9.5m.
Draft a squad from 1995/96