Darren Ferguson was born in Glasgow on 9 February 1972. His father Sir Alex Ferguson brought him through the youth ranks at Manchester United as an apprentice in July 1988. He signed professionally two years later and gave him his first team-debut in 1990. He played in United's first 15 games of the new Premier League in 1992/93 during the absence of the injured Bryan Robson. Although he did not play in the league after November, he did play enough games to qualify for a title winner's medal at the end of the season.
However, his first-team chances were very limited making just 27 league appearances for United in three and a half years when he joined Wolves in January 1994 for a fee of £250,000. He spent five years at Wolves, during which they qualified for the Division One playoffs twice and finished in the top 10 on four occasions, but couldn't quite gain promotion to the Premier League. He scored 4 goals in 117 league appearances.
He had a trial for Italian side Cosenza in late 1988 before joining Sparta Rotterdam on loan in early 1999 scoring once in 14 appearances.
In September 1999 Ferguson joined Wrexham and played for 8 years, scoring 51 goals in 310 appearances. Whilst at Wrexham he helped them win promotion to Division Two in 2003. Ferguson also lifted the LDV Vans trophy for Wrexham after scoring the second goal in a 2-0 win over Southend.
In 2001 Ferguson was linked with the management post at Wrexham, following the departure of Brian Flynn. At the time, he assisted caretaker manager Joey Jones. After manager Denis Smith was sacked in January 2007, Ferguson was again touted as a candidate, but coach Brian Carey was appointed instead.
On 20 January 2007 he left Wrexham to become player-manager of fellow League Two side Peterborough after previous manager Keith Alexander had been sacked after a run of six straight defeats. He led the club to a 10th placed finish in his first season of management. In his first full season of management in 2007/08, he took Peterborough to promotion in League Two by finishing runners-up to MK Dons.
He was named League Two manager of the month for March 2008, after they won six games out of eight in the month. Ferguson had led them to the top of the league, with a run of thirteen wins and three draws in sixteen games.
In his second full season, the 2008/09 season, he won the League One Manager of the Month award for March 2009, following six straight wins and led Peterborough to promotion to the Championship on 25 April 2009 after a 1-0 win at Colchester. Peterborough finished the season as runners-up to Champions Leicester.
Ferguson left Peterborough on 9 November 2009, by mutual consent, after a disappointing start to the 2009/10 season with just 11 points from 16 matches. His record as manager in 145 matches at Peterborough was 73 wins, 32 draws and 40 defeats.