Featured Image Credit: talkSPORT/Getty
Topics: Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney, Football, Premier League
Luke Davies
Topics: Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney, Football, Premier League
Wayne Rooney has had his say on who he thinks is more talented out of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Rooney formed a formidable partnership with the Portuguese star Ronaldo at Manchester United in his prime.
Despite a frosty start to their relationship – due to Ronaldo playing a part in Rooney’s 2006 World Cup quarter-final sending-off – they put their differences aside.
Their telepathic link-up culminated in United’s 2008 Champions League victory against Chelsea.
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Ronaldo was widely regarded as the main man at United before his Real Madrid switch in 2009. His importance meant Rooney played a supporting role from the wings.
As for Messi, he never played with Rooney and arguably stopped the Liverpool-born forward from winning both the 2009 and 2011 Champions Leagues. United lost to Barcelona in the final on both occasions.
But having shared the pitch with both, Rooney gave his thoughts on who was more talented.
The ex-England man was playing a game of ‘stay silent’ with talkSPORT. The rules were that he had to 'stay silent until you hear of a player who was more talented in his youth than Wayne Rooney'.
Rooney remained silent as Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and Ronaldo were mentioned. But he finally broke the silence when Messi’s name came up.
“Yeah, I’d say Messi,” admitted Rooney.
The Plymouth Argyle boss is a long-term admirer of the Argentine and explained how he "has that little bit more flair" than Ronaldo.
"I think Messi, I think he’s just the best ever," he said on the Overlap earlier this year.
"I get a lot of stick for saying Messi where it’s as if, ‘How can you say Messi, it’s Ronaldo.’ I understand that people can say Messi, people can say Ronaldo.”
The former United and Everton man’s ex-teammate Paul Scholes has also given his verdict on the 'GOAT' debate.
He, too, played with Ronaldo and saw his hopes of winning a third Champions League dashed by Messi’s brilliance in 2009 and 2011.
"Watching Messi against Tottenham at Wembley [in 2019] made me think about the Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo debate again," Scholes said, speaking on ESPN in 2019.
“Messi, but Ronaldo is brilliant.
“Ronaldo is sensational at what he does, with pace and power. He scores, he takes free-kicks.
“But as an all-round footballer, Messi – wow, his passing – has absolutely everything.”