Cristiano Ronaldo described his former teammate, Wayne Rooney as jealous for saying that his return to Manchester United in August 2021 did not benefit the club.
Futballnews has reported that Rooney who is now the coach of Derby County urged Manchester United to allow Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Pogba to go this summer via Monday Night Football on Sky Sports.
The retired English footballer stressed that Ronaldo can not give more than scoring goals and Manchester United need more than that. Rooney insisted that players like Ronaldo and Pogba ought to be replaced with younger players.
After the show, Rooney took to his Instagram page with 15.4 million followers to post a picture from Monday Night Football showing himself, former Liverpool player Jamie Carragher, and Sky Sports presenter David Jones.
In the caption, the 36-year-old retired footballer wrote: “Great night on Monday Night Football”, tagging Carragher and Jones.
Cristiano Ronaldo who has 423 million Instagram followers took the opportunity of Rooney’s post to react to Rooney’s perspective. The 37-year-old five-time Ballon d’Or winner took to the post’s comment section and wrote: “two jealous” with emoji of two eyes to prove to Rooney that he is watching the Derby County coach.
Even though Cristiano Ronaldo is currently the highest goalscorer at Manchester United with 18 goals so far this season, many critics of the club blame him for the misfortunes of the club.
Recall that Manchester United finished second (12 points behind Manchester City) in the Premier League last season. But they are currently occupying the 7th spot with 51 points in 30 games, 22 points away from first-placed Manchester City.
The fact that Manchester United did better last season without Cristiano Ronaldo made critics like Wayne Rooney believe that the Portuguese football icon is surplus to requirement at Old Trafford.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney have a long history together
Historically, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney have come a long way and they are supposed to be on each other side no matter what. Unfortunately, that seems to be impossible.
The history between Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney started in 2004 when the English forward joined Ronaldo at Manchester United from Everton.
They played together between 2004 and 2009 before Cristiano Ronaldo decided to leave the English giants for Real Madrid in a then world transfer record fee worth around £88 million.
Before Ronaldo left Manchester United, he and Rooney helped Manchester United to win three Premier League titles, one FA Cup, two league cups, one FA Community Shield, one UEFA Champions League, and one FIFA Club World Cup.
During Rooney and Ronaldo’s era at Old Trafford, it was believed that Rooney played under the shadow of Ronaldo. When the Portuguese footballer left, Rooney went on to become Manchester United’s highest goalscorer of all time with 253 goals in all competitions.
While Ronaldo (37-year-old) is still playing for both club and country, Rooney (36-year-old) decided to retire from international football in 2018 and from club football in 2021. The retired England international is currently the football manager of Championship side, Derby County.