Rio Ferdinand has been named England captain ahead of tonight’s friendly with France.

England manager Fabio Capello made the announcement at a press conference in Paris yesterday and has continued his policy of rotating the captaincy around the team, with John Terry the captain under previous manager Steve Mclarren and Steven Gerrard captain during the previous game against Switzerland.

The Italian boss said he chose the 29 year old defender, due to his ‘leadership and professionalism.’

Ferdinand has played in two World Cups however missed the European Championships of 2004 as he was serving an 8 month ban for missing a drug test. This coupled with a history which includes driving bans and other drug rumours has lead some to question his suitability as a national captain.

EnglandFans member Nicky Roberts, 31, said ‘it seems a bit surprising as he is hardly a great role model for the youngsters, even if he genuinely forgot about his drugs test, it all seems a bit dodgy and that’s not what we as the fans want.

The Manchester United defender is ecstatic to be given the chance to lead the team out, ‘It is a fantastic honour and an achievement in itself,’ the stand in skipper for Utd said.

However Capello has insisted it is the right thing to do and says that he will ‘continue to rotate up to the World Cup qualifiers’ in September.

In the same press conference the England boss, who won his first game as manager 2-1 at Wembley in February, confirmed that David Beckham will reach the fantastic achievement of 100 caps. Capello went on to confirm that there is no reason why the ex-England skipper should not be able to play in the finals of the 2010 competition should they qualify.

Furthermore it has also been confirmed this week that Wembley will play host to both the USA and the Czech Republic in the summer as part of the run in to the qualifying campaign.