These days, a £30 million transfer doesn’t even make the back page of a newspaper.

However, 15 years ago it was an incredible sum to pay for a player. And it was the amount that Manchester United paid for Rio Ferdinand.

United broke the British-record to bring Ferdinand to the club from Leeds, making him the world’s most expensive defender.

As a 23-year-old, Ferdinand had the potential to become one of the best defenders in world football and he established just that during his 12 seasons at Old Trafford.

But, at first, there was some doubt whether spending £30 million on a defender was a good idea.

In fact, even some United players were unsure about the incredible fee.

In a one-on-one interview with FourFourTwo, Ferdinand was asked whether he paid much attention to becoming the world’s first £30 million defender.

Whilst he claimed he didn’t think about it too much, a certain Ole Gunnar Solskjaer brought it up in his very first training session.

“Not really,” he said when asked if he cared about his transfer fee.

“The most nerve-wracking time was the first training session. We’re playing a piggy-in-the-middle-type game and I could hear Ole Gunnar Solskjaer saying ‘How much? Thirty million? What?!’”

“I would have expected that from Keano or Butty, but not him. These are your teammates and you want to impress them. But when you step out onto the pitch it’s second nature. I’ve never spoken about the transfer fees, except with the media.”

But Ferdinand paid back his transfer fee and then some.

More than 450 appearances, six Premier League trophies and a Champions League victory Ferdinand is very much a United legend, making that £30m fee look like an absolute bargain.

That’ll show Solskjaer.