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Anton aiming to emulate Rio

16 Oct 2008 - 09:44:48

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Sunderland new boy Anton Ferdinand is hoping to impress with the Black Cats and force his way into the senior England squad in the coming years.

The 23-year-old centre-half has been a regular at Under-21 level for his country, but accepts that he needs to improve his play to be able to follow brother Rio into Fabio Capello's squad.

Ferdinand told the Sunderland Echo: "My number one priority is playing well for Sunderland and being part of what we're trying to achieve here.

"Obviously I want to play for England too and I'm only 23, but I can see it being in my grasp in the next year or two if I do well for Sunderland.

"If I do that, then hopefully I'll get the call. If I don't, I need to work harder. There are people in the England squad who are doing things that I'm not doing at the moment and I've got to try to work out what those things are and get better at them.

"But I think experience in big games is what I need. I'm only 23 and I've played in big games, but I'm talking about Champions League games and playing in Europe.

"I think the biggest thing for me is consistency. My biggest downfall is that I've been inconsistent in the past. I need to be consistent through a season."