Welcome to another episode of Rio Meets where Rio sits down with a former team mate and ends up learning so much more about them, despite sharing a dressing room for years at Manchester United.

You’ll see a completely different side to Dimitar Berbatov who discuses the impact his father refusing to say, “I love you” had on him, along with a gang kindapping him when he was aged 18 in Bulgaria.

He is refreshingly honest about the toughest moments in his career and details the resilience and strength of character that he used following tough times in his home country.

There is brilliant analysis of playing up front with Rooney, Tevez, Ronaldo and he also analyses the current strikers in the game including Erling Haaland, Robert Lewandowski and Harry Kane who Berbatov says is the most similar to his own style.

The former Man Utd and Spurs striker gives his advice to the latest striker to arrive at Old Trafford, Benjamin Sesko, and details how 4 text messages made him realise exactly the sort of club he was joining when Sir Alex Ferguson signed him on deadline day in 2008.

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Rio sits down with Joel after a third straight victory for Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United and pays special attention to the redemption of midfielder Casemiro.

He addresses the “highly disrespectful” comments made about the Brazilian by Jamie Carragher and says that Kobbie Mainoo could learn a lot from the way Casemiro has forced his way back into the team - even with his stellar career and trophy cabinet.

Scott McTominay is another example of a player who is playing with renewed confidence so Rio discusses a time where his confidence was negatively influenced by his manager and how that translated into matches and training.

Danny Welbeck is currently England’s best striker behind Harry Kane - hear why Rio would put him on the plane for the World Cup in the summer after a Premier League season in which Rio predicts Arsenal will win the title - hear why he believes Mikel Arteta’s side has the advantage over Man City and Liverpool.

Arne Slot has been questioned about his brutally honest comments about his Liverpool side’s ability to defend various tactics that opponents have implemented against them and says any excuses made are “poor”.

Plus, to kick off a campaign with our partners Craftd that’s all about people ‘mastering their craft’ Rio and Joel discuss the player in the Premier League who has worked hard over the last 12 months for mastering theirs and pays credit to their diligence and professionalism.

#ManUtd #Casemiro #JamieCarragher #KobbieMainoo #RubenAmorim #ScottMcTominay #DannyWelbeck #Arsenal #PremierLeague #TitleRace #ArneSlot #Craftd #RioFerdinand #FootballPodcast #WorldCup

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The HMRC of football podcasts, Karel Prince, joins Ste and Joel to come face to face with Rio after several messages back and forth on social media. After creating several viral videos scrutinising anecdotes and stories from players about their careers on various podcasts - Karel wants to bring some more evidence to put to Mr. Ferdinand. It’s the first time that Karel is in the presence of a player he’s made a video about so you’ll learn about the forensic process, the reasons for calling people out and the fallout that happens after the videos get released, plus Rio’s reaction to some new charges brought against him.

Karel looks at whether there’s enough evidence out there to confirm Rio’s status as the greatest defender ever to have played in the Premier League. We’ve got the game’s best fact checker in position to hear the case for and against.

Manchester United minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe recently suggested that Ruben Amorim will get three years to prove he is a good coach - so the guys discuss whether that's fair, analyse the comparison he made with Arteta and look at the positives of the owner making such a public stance.

Plus, Rio has to pick a player to take a free-kick who has to score it, in order to save his life. So who would he choose in today’s game, and from history, to take the most important set-piece of their lives?

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Steven Gerrard is the latest guest who sits down with Rio to show a different side of them that’s not been seen before on camera.

He picks out two English midfielders that he’d love to go toe-to-toe with and details all of the reasons why the national side weren’t successful during his time as an international footballer.

The Liverpool and England legend is honest about what went wrong whilst managing Aston Villa and also analyses some of the recruitment decisions taken by the Liverpool hierarchy when he was there as a player which he says the club got “badly wrong”.

There’s amazing insight into what drove his ability to wrestle control of games, candid reflections on negative moments from his career and he carefully analyses some of the highest profile midfielders he played with and against including Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira, Paul Scholes, Frank Lampard and Xabi Alonso.

And, he gives his say about the debate that former team mate Michael Owen sparked on a previous episode - who’s better between him and Wayne Rooney.

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After a positive weekend for both Arsenal and Manchester United, Ste Howson and Joel Beya are with Rio to analyse the performances and focus on why Manchester United’s attitude was different when competing against Sunderland.

Mason Mount spoke about how they focused on bringing energy so Ste dissects how professional footballers approach games to ensure their mentality and application is sufficient in order to perform.

After receiving praise for his recent performances, a listener gets in touch to ask who is in better form at the moment, Declan Rice or Moises Caicedo?

Rio also analyses how Brentford’s central defenders lost their battle with Erling Haaland who Rio says can be viewed as the Premier League’s greatest ever goalscorer.

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Joel is fresh from Arsenal’s last minute victory and sits down with Rio and Ste to hear how they want to see their team play after Manchester United lost to Brentford at the weekend.

Both Rio and Ste are asking for changes but the tweaks they ask for are quite different so let us know below what you believe would be the best option for Amorim to try and get more positive results.

Rio has a warning for Liverpool’s Ibrahim Konate and analyses the “old-fashioned” battle between Newcastle’s Woltemade and Arsenal defender Gabriel.

Eze is praised for what he’s adding to the Arsenal team but there’s dismay at the way that youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly has lost his place in the team to Riccardo Calafiori.

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Wayne Rooney is the latest guest on Rio Meets and sits down with Rio in a way you’ve never seen him before.

Wayne candidly reveals how his anger got him into trouble away from football, the importance of his wife Coleen in protecting himself and his favourite player that he’s ever played with - spoiler, it’s not Cristiano.

If you thought you knew Wayne Rooney, this is another episode of Rio Meets where you’ll see a completely different side to one of the game’s greatest players.

You’ll hear an incredibly raw conversation about why Wayne never thought he fit in despite the successes he had on the pitch and the insecurities he battled throughout his career.

There’s a young player singled out by Wayne for having the potential to be as great as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo - plus he also has his say on that age old debate.

In amongst the raw emotion, there’s incredible tactical insight into the team he thrived in at Manchester United, analysis on how Harry Kane could become even better and he also dismantles the game of one of the Premier League’s best defenders.

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After a much-needed win for Manchester United over Chelsea at the weekend which saw Bruno Fernandes reach the 100 goal milestone, Rio and Ste are asked whether they’d accept £100m for their best player and how they’d invest that cash.

Rio has special praise for Mathijs De-Ligt (after some gentle persuasion from Ste) and Joel brings up Raheem Sterling’s situation at Chelsea to see what they think about it.

The Chelsea game saw Ruben Amorim substitute some of his defenders towards the end of the game and Rio tells us why centre-halves will find that particularly difficult - it’s something that gets his WhatsApp groups going every weekend!

There’s analysis on the differences between Benjamin Sesko and Rasmus Hojlund and Rio responds directly to a social media post concerning him and his former teammate Nemanja Vidic and whether they’d be able to thrive in today’s game.

Plus there’s a competition brought to you by our new partners Craftd where you can win an overnight stay in London, gain exclusive access to a podcast recording and receive a £1,000 credit to spend at craftd.com. Make sure you head to this instagram post for all the details.

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