Lionel Messi might have done almost everything in his playing career, but for a while there was one area where Rio Ferdinand had him beat.
Messi scored Argentina's first two goals of the 2022 World Cup, putting away a penalty against Saudi Arabia and breaking the deadlock in a 2-0 victory over Mexico. As he prepared to face Australia in the last 16, though, his failure to score a World Cup knockout goal came into focus.
Ferdinand, on the other hand, scored in his very first World Cup knockout game. The centre-back was on target against Denmark in 2002, and he was quick to remind Gary Lineker of that fact... only for Messi to then respond within 45 minutes against the Socceroos.
"It’s fascinating that neither he nor Ronaldo - Cristiano Ronaldo I should say - have ever scored in a World Cup knockout stages," Match of the Day host Lineker said, before turning to Ferdinand's fellow pundit Alan Shearer. "But to be honest Alan if it was that easy we’d have more than seven between us!"
"Just so you know I have as well," Ferdinand added, prompting acknowledgement from Lineker. "I’ve done something they haven’t done, that’s unbelievable."
Ferdinand scored just three goals in 81 senior international appearances, but one of those was in a World Cup knockout game. He opened the scoring in a 3-0 win for England against Denmark in a last-16 clash in Niigata in 2002, having been an unused sub for all of England's games four years earlier.
That goal would end up being the only one Ferdinand scored in any major tournament. His other efforts both came more than five years later, in qualifiers for Euro 2008 and for the 2010 World Cup.
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While Messi went into the 2022 World Cup without a knockout goal to his name, he has scored plenty in the group stages. He scored at the 2006, 2014 and 2018 World Cups, and had 93 senior international goals to his name at the end of the group stages in Qatar.
He has suggested the tournament in Qatar would be his last, meaning every Argentina game could be his final opportunity to net a knockout goal. After failing to score a knockout goal in four World Cups, though, he beat Mat Ryan 10 minutes before the break with a well-placed finish from the edge of the box to hand Argentina the lead.
Messi moved to Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, helping him win Ligue 1 in his first season. The 2020 Champions League finalists are looking to win the competition for the first time this season, though the veteran's longer term future at the Parc des Princes is uncertain with reports of talks over an Inter Miami switch.
"I like Paris a lot more now, I have discovered the city and I find it magnificent," he said earlier this year. "In the first year, there was a huge change.
"Things happened very suddenly, it was not my objective to leave Barcelona, and everything about it was very abrupt. After this long period and the difficult times, I am happy to live where I live, and my family and I are enjoying Paris."
