Les Ferdinand has revealed that a conversation with Kevin Keegan led him to become a qualified helicopter pilot.
Gary Neville questioned the former England striker and Premier League icon about his license in the Stay with the football podcastbrought to you by sky bet.
Ferdinand confirmed he passed his test while at Tottenham, prompting Roy Keane to joke: “Is that getting out of Spurs quickly?”
The 57-year-old revealed that he was inspired to become a helicopter pilot after signing for Newcastle in 1995, after speaking to manager Kevin Keegan.
“When I was in Newcastle, Keegan posted something and said to me: you’re walking into a fishbowl, in London terms you can get lost but you can’t do anything here,” Ferdinand said.
Les Ferdinand, pictured in 2006, has revealed how he became a licensed helicopter pilot.
Ferdinand told the Stick to Football podcast that a conversation with Kevin Keegan after signing with Newcastle led to him obtaining a helicopter licence.
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Then he said what are the three things you want to do. I told him, ‘I want to learn to play the saxophone, learn to cook and learn to ride a motorcycle.’
‘He said, “I can let you do two of them, but I can’t let you do the third one.”
‘I said “damn hell”. He said there was a place in Newcastle that had built him a Harley and said, “I’ll let you pass the test if you come back to my house on the Harley,” so I said, “Okay, no problem.”
“Someone in Newcastle had built it for him, he couldn’t ride it, but he was just going to put it on display.”
Ferdinand revealed that he was then approached about flying a helicopter after Keegan included him in a program of potential activities.
“At first I thought no, not really, but then he came and took a look and it got into my head,” Ferdinand added.
‘To be fair, the first time I came up I said ‘fuck, I’m not sure I like this’ and then the old man said ‘where do you live?’ And I said right there.
Ferdinand became a qualified helicopter pilot while playing for Tottenham.
“He said ‘let’s take a look at your house’ and as soon as I saw my house, that changed my perception of everything.”
Ferdinand previously said it had taken him between 18 months and two years to pass the exam after undergoing seven exams.
The former striker once admitted he had used his helicopter to travel to Bolton, flying to Lancashire on Tuesday before returning home after the weekend’s matches.
Talking with him soccer walk In 2022, the former England striker admitted that he had only flown to training once during his career under the instructions of manager Steve Coppell when he played for Reading.
“It used to take me 45 minutes to an hour to get from my house to Reading, and in my helicopter it took 12 minutes,” Ferdinand said.
“He said, ‘Wait until I get the kids out and then you can fly in,’ so when they were leaving, I flew in.
Last year, the 57-year-old resigned as QPR’s director of football after eight years.
‘I remember Lloyd Owusu, more than anyone, couldn’t believe it.
“That was the only time I brought him to training because the coach told me it would be a bit of fun.”
Ferdinand is 12th in the Premier League’s all-time goalscoring charts after scoring 149 goals in 351 appearances.
He enjoyed impressive spells in the top flight at QPR, Newcastle and Tottenham, before moving to West Ham United, Leicester, Bolton, Reading and Watford in the latter part of his career.