Rooney often makes statements favoring Messi over Ronaldo.

“I think Messi is the best player ever”, someone who played at the same time as Lionel Messi and Ronaldo commented on The Overlap . “I used to receive a lot of criticism just for making comments like that about Messi. I’m so used to thinking why did you choose Messi, it should have been Ronaldo”.

“I understand that. People can say Ronaldo is the best. But for me, Messi is more refined. That’s what I like in a player, so I choose Messi (over Ronaldo – Reporter)”, former money England team director commented.

This is not the first time Rooney praised Messi as being better than Ronaldo. In successive interviews in 2022 or 2023, the MU legend highly appreciated the Argentine superstar.

Even in an interview earlier this year, Rooney said that Ronaldo has a rather selfish playing style, while he himself plays quite similar to Messi. “Basically, Messi is like me, we both like to play football. We want to do more than score goals,” Rooney commented.

Ronaldo was openly dissatisfied with Rooney’s statements. In an interview with Piers Morgan last November, the Portuguese superstar “no longer considers Rooney a friend” and said that his former teammate was jealous because he was still playing top football.

Rooney has just returned to the coaching bench 4 months after being fired by Birmingham City. The former England striker will take on the role of head coach at Plymouth Argyle, with the goal of helping the club stay in the Championship 2024/25.