Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has waxed lyrical on Chelsea trio Edouard Mendy, Antonio Rudiger and N'Golo Kante after selecting them in his FIFA 22 Team of the Year.
Ferdinand recently teamed up with EA Sports to pick his FIFA 22 Team of the Year, with seven Chelsea players featuring in the list of nominees such as Romelu Lukaku, Jorginho, Mason Mount and Kante. Speaking on FIVE, a podcast featuring Ferdinand and fellow co-presenters, Joel Beya and Steven Howson, they discussed which players they include in their Team of the Year.
The BT Sport pundit selected a number of world-class players in his line-up, including the Chelsea trio alongside the likes of Mohamed Salah, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski.
Ferdinand started off his Team of the Year selection by choosing Chelsea goalkeeper Mendy after his brilliant 2020/21 season, claiming the Blues' number one spot as his own.
"When I covered a lot of their games (Chelsea), in big key moments, he made big saves and I think that's where you judge the goalkeeper position," Ferdinand said on FIVE.
The Senegalese 'keeper kept 27 clean sheets in 51 appearances for Chelsea in all competitions in 2021, the most of any Premier League goalkeeper.
Mendy is one of seven goalkeeper nominees for the FIFA 22 Team of the Year, along with Ederson, Emiliano Martinez, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Mike Maignan, Jan Oblak and former Blues' goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
In a back four dominated by Manchester City's Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias and Joao Cancelo - Ferdinand opted to slot 'tremendous' Rudiger in alongside them.
"Centre-back will be Rudiger," he said. "Since Tuchel has come in, I think he has been one of the best defenders around."
Rudiger scored the winner against Spurs in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg, helping the Blues secure a place in the final at Wembley after a 3-0 aggregate win.
"Aggressive, dominates, demands from others, the crowd feeds off the way he plays. All round I think he has been tremendous and again, I think the element of a new contract has focused him as well.
"I think whoever gets him will have a solid player."
The final Chelsea representative in Ferdinand's team was the always-impressive Kante, a player the ex-defender believes 'single-handedly' won the Champions League last year.
“Any team that gets picked here and Kante isn’t in it, I’m not having you," Ferdinand said. "He basically single-handedly won Chelsea the Champions League.
"I think he won five or six man-of-the-match awards on his way to winning the Champions League. "All round I think he’s a great player and you want him in your team.
"For me, he’s one of the first names on the team sheet for any manager.”
Rio Ferdinand's full FIFA 22 Team of the Year is below:
- GK: Edouard Mendy (Chelsea & Senegal)
- RB: Kyle Walker (Manchester City & England)
- CB: Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea & Germany)
- CB: Ruben Dias (Manchester City & Portugal)
- LB: Joao Cancelo (Manchester City & Portugal)
- CM: Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich & Germany)
- CM: N'Golo Kante (Chelsea & France)
- CM: Marco Verratti (PSG & Italy)
- RW: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool & Egypt)
- LW: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United & Portugal)
- ST: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich & Poland)
Watch the full video with Rio Ferdinand here to see the debate in full, as Rio, Joel and Ste pick their final selections for the EA SPORTS FIFA 22 TOTY.
EA SPORTS FIFA 22 is available worldwide now.
