Rio's half-century

Rio has come a long way since a cold night at Wembley nearly ten years ago but, on the brink of his half-century, he still remembers England cap number one very vividly.

"It was against Cameroon at Wembley," he recalls. "The old Wembley Stadium, I was lucky enough to play there. Gareth Southgate got injured on a cold evening, I was lucky enough to go on.

"I remember warming up before the game. It's funny, the other day I was watching the B game. Theo was warming up and they were singing his name.

"They were doing exactly the same for me before that game [Cameroon]. It brought back a funny memory. It reminded me of myself."

Despite his profile and experience in the game, Rio is still a fan at heart. You can hear it in his voice when he talks with reverence about some of the players he's played with.

"I went on, it was brilliant. I got to play with Paul Gascoigne [that night]. That's one of the things I can say when I'm older and have finished football.

"It's everything it's built up to be and more. You remember what the temperature was like, what date it was, where it was, who you were playing with, the whole team, who you came on for. It's the stuff of dreams.

"I could only dream as a kid of being an international footballer, and I had the chance early."

Today, Rio is one of the cornerstones of Sven's England World Cup Squad. His immaculate performances against Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago have carried on a theme of consistency that has run throughout Rio's England career.

His statistics are outstanding. He has only ever lost two competitive games when playing for England (against Northern Ireland in 2005, and Brazil in 2002) and has only ever been booked once at international level (Brazil, 2002).

It's no wonder he feels good at the moment.

"I feel very confident, one of the most confident I've felt as an England footballer," he explains.

"At the last World Cup, I remember sitting in a room with Michael Owen, Kieron Dyer, Emile Heskey, Becks, talking about the game before we played Brazil. We went and watched them against Belgium. That day I got my picture taken with Zico. I've still got it on my laptop.

"We did not see anything that was to fear. Individually they were fantastic - Ronaldo, Rivaldo - he was probably the best player in the world at the time. We were still confident we would win. I remember sitting there saying we had a real chance. We played against them, it just never happened.

"This time, we have Gary Neville with us. He's got a slight injury, but he should be back in contention later in the tournament. Becks is fully fit, and Steven Gerrard - he's a very influential player as you saw in the game against Trinidad. That's what he can do.

"He's done it consistently for a few years with Liverpool now. I'm sure he will be aiming to do that consistently with England now. We are in a good state at the moment, but nothing to get over confident about."

Check out Rio's England stats by clicking here.

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