Anton Ferdinand has claimed that he left West Ham for Sunderland so that he could improve his skills and be named amongst the best footballers in the Premier League.

The 23-year old was at the Hammers for five years and joined the Black Cats at the end of August.

The Englishman claimed that it was on his brother, Rio's advice, that he had joined Roy Keane’s side at the Stadium of Light.

Rio was in a similar situation in the early stages of his career where he left the East London side to join Leeds United in 2000.

"I spoke to Rio a lot before the move," Ferdinand told the Sunderland Echo.

"He made a similar move at a similar stage of his career and he told me it was the making of him.

"He’s worked with the gaffer before and knows how much he could help me progress. I spoke to him about this at length and he said straight away, ‘That’s a move that could take your football to a totally different level’.

"I don’t want to settle for being second-best – I want to be the best I can possibly be.”

He added: "I was at West Ham a long time and sometimes you need to take on a new challenge to enable your career to move on to the next level."