Rio Ferdinand has told CNBC he was hurt by being overlooked for the Manchester United captaincy and said he felt Sir Alex Ferguson never gave him enough credit.
Ferdinand had been club captain at Leeds United ahead of his big-money move to Old Trafford in 2002, and he was made England skipper under Fabio Capello in 2010.
However, the centre-back was never handed the United captaincy on a permanent basis and he has revealed that he was particularly annoyed that Ferguson gave the captaincy to Gary Neville when Roy Keane left United in 2005.
The 36-year-old, who retired this summer after one season at QPR, said: "I'd be lying if I said it didn't [hurt]. Sometimes there are situations during your career where you think: 'Am I getting the credit I deserve?'
"But at the same time that is one of the things that maybe pushed me on year in year out, to keep improving, to sustain that level for all those years."
Ferdinand, who won the Premier League six times in a 12-year career at Old Trafford, led United out in the 2008 Champions League final when Neville had missed much of the season injured and vice-captain Ryan Giggs started on the bench.
However, Ferguson preferred Nemanja Vidic when he chose Neville's successor as captain and Ferdinand said the Scot eventually told him he was trying to stop him becoming complacent.
"Ferguson was very much on your case at all times," he added. "He was very much about personalities and working out you as a person.
"I used to feel I was never given enough credit when I was playing under him -- me and Vidic used to talk about it quite a lot.
"It wasn't until I retired and I spoke to him that he said to me: 'With your personality, if I'd given you too much credit, you might have got carried away.'"