Rio Ferdinand says Kai Havertz has already gone down in Chelsea ‘folklore’ and repaid the £70m fee the club spent on him by scoring in the UEFA Champions League and Club World Cup finals.
Havertz held his nerve from the penalty spot in extra time as Chelsea beat Palmeiras to be crowned world champions for the first time on Saturday.
Raphael Veiga had earlier cancelled out Romelu Lukaku’s opening goal in normal time at Abu Dhabi’s Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium.
The win meant the Blues have lifted every possible trophy available since Roman Abramovich took over at Stamford Bridge back in 2003 and it came just eight months after their triumph in the Champions League.
Havertz was also the hero that day, latching on to Mason Mount through ball to score the only goal of the clash against Manchester City in an all-Premier League affair at the Estadio do Dragao.
Reacting to Havertz’s heroics on his Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE YouTube channel, Ferdinand joked the German attacker could quit football and still go down as a Chelsea legend.
‘He doesn’t have to kick a ball ever again in a Chelsea shirt, he’s repaid the £70m price tag now,’ the former Manchester United and England defender said.
‘He’s scored two of the biggest goals in the history of the club. ‘Don’t have to do no more! Shut down, undo your boots, take ’em off, chill!
‘It’s not gonna happen but listen, if he doesn’t play another game for Chelsea he goes down in folklore.’
Chelsea received some criticism for their celebrations after the Club World Cup final triumph, with former Blue Craig Burley saying Thomas Tuchel’s side should be ’embarrassed’.
But Ferdinand hit back at the reaction and said the likes of Palmeiras and Al-Hilal – Chelsea’s semi-final opponents – are ‘decent teams’ with ‘huge talent’.
‘You’ve got to be mentally really ready to play these games or you come up short. They are difficult,’ Ferdinand added. ‘We played in it and we won it, but the games weren’t easy and they are decent teams.
‘The stature of the teams are very different and the resources that these teams have got compared to the English teams is like night and day, but on the football pitch the skill is a leveler and these guys have got talent.
‘They’ve got huge talent and internationals in their team.’
Meanwhile, Thiago Silva played every minute of Chelsea’s Club World Cup campaign and Ferdinand, revealed what Frank Lampard had once told him about the Brazilian.
‘Do you know what I’ve heard about him, what Frank’s told me about him when he first got there?’ Ferdinand explained.
‘He said, “Rio, he’s on everything! When we’re doing the tactics for the team he wants to know what’s going on. He’s got a translator, he doesn’t understand English perfectly, but he wants to know, he wants to understand everything, puts his input into it.”
‘He’s a proper football man, a professional and he wants it.’
