I was a fighter from an early age

The culture at Old Trafford left Vidic with no choice: if he didn’t improve, somebody would catch him up and move past him. Dedication to practice was ingrained in the club’s daily routine.

“Man United is a dream place for the player who wants to improve. At the time we had everything we needed, with facilities which were going to help us improve.

“If you want to work outside on the pitch, you had someone who was going to do that for you. If you want to do it inside in the gym - for your physical stuff - you had a person who would help you to do that.

“I was lucky that I had all this opportunity that I could improve myself every day. I was happy every day to see that I was improving.”

Having recently completed the FA UEFA Pro Licence at St.George’s Park, the 37 year-old has his own ambitions for helping others improve. If he were to land a role as a manager or assistant - his desired next step - passing on his own knowledge of defending would play a crucial part.

“Like every position you have to challenge the defenders in training, doing the specific work in terms of the situation they’re going to have in the game. They must also understand the different leagues you’re playing in and the way you play.

“Of course, in football now, you play from the back, you’re not playing with long balls from the goalkeeper.

“But saying playing from the back is not just I give you the ball and you play from the back - you have to give them solutions.”

Vidic’s route to the top of the domestic and European game required much problem solving of his own. Not least, what position to play during his younger years.

“I tried as a forward, then I get to the wing and I tried winger. Then they bring me back to right back and I finish as a centre defender. I was trying across the pitch, but actually in the end, it happened that my best position was to be at the back.

“Maybe it was because, when I started in the youth system, I was in a club that didn’t have many players and I was the youngest.

“I was ten, eleven years old then and had started very young - I started as a seven year-old boy.

“I didn’t have the physique, I didn’t have the speed to play upfront, so they had to put me in the positions to help field the team, so I was right back.”

Playing as a defender against older boys would prove to be the making of United’s future captain. The physical challenge of playing against stronger opponents bringing out the warrior qualities for which he would become globally renowned.

“When I was eleven, I played with thirteen year old boys. I was smaller and I had to play with older boys which were stronger and faster than me. So I had to fight and I was a fighter from an early age, so I was always on the ground.

“It was tough, but that made me tough when I was getting older. I think that’s when your character is coming, from the youth, from the young ages.

“I was a fighter, because I had to always give 100%. If I go into a challenge at 70%, I was going to fall always. I had to give 200% with every tackle.

“After some time I liked to be the defender, I like to defend, I liked to take the ball from the player, so that was my challenge.”

Vidic admits this character stayed with him throughout a career that also involved spells at Red Star Belgrade, Spartak Moscow and Inter Milan.

“The character I had when I was young was the character that I had for my whole career. Yes, I learned to defend from the different coaches that helped me play with the better players. But just the thing in my mind ‘I like to defend’ helps you because if you like something you’re going to try better every day.

“All that time I asked myself ‘what is my position?'. If you’re a defender you defend, that’s your job to do - it’s as simple as that.”

He recognises his defensive duties at United were made easier by the players around him, acknowledging the qualities of his long-time central defensive partner, Rio Ferdinand.

“I had a great relationship with Rio, and to be fair I had a great relationship with the defenders in the national team as well.

“I have always been able to have a good relationship with defenders; I think that’s the key. I think that position, as a defender, you’re reliant on your teammate because you cannot do it by yourself.

“I think sometimes strikers they’re individual. Sometimes they don’t depend as much as defenders with the connection you have with your teammate. I understood that communication at the back was vital to do it well.”

Strong defensive partnerships are built on communication and understanding others’ strengths and weaknesses, says Vidic.

“You have to understand your teammates. I think you need to understand what is their quality and weakness.

“All players have their qualities, which we all know, but they have some things that maybe they can do it but don’t want to do it, so you have to balance those things.

“I think that me and Rio had a great balance in terms of the certain things he liked to do and certain things I like to do, so I think that goes well. To do that, you have to communicate with others so we were always speaking in training.

“Certain situations happen and you say ‘what do you think about it?’ and he tells me what he thinks, I tell him what I think and what we should do and then we build our relationship and trust through training.

“After one year, we stopped talking because we knew everything. So you don’t have to say anything, we just looked at each other. I think that was a big thing for our relationship.”

Article image courtesy of Matt West/BPI/REX/Shutterstock.