Wayne Rooney once again proclaimed Lionel Messi to be the greatest player in history, a thinly veiled jab at Cristiano Ronaldo.
Recent mockery of the Manchester United legend came from former teammate Ronaldo, who viciously attacked him in a confrontational interview with Piers Morgan that ultimately resulted in the termination of his contract with the Red Devils. Following Messi’s exploits at the World Cup, Rooney, who has repeatedly criticized the Portuguese in recent months, has delivered a counterpunch.
Wayne Rooney came upon one of his older tweets from more than ten years ago after putting on yet another mesmerizing display for Argentina on Tuesday as they advanced to the final.
“Messi is a joke. For me the best ever,” the former captain of England said in March 2012.
The perspective of the now-retired Rooney is still valid today, ten years later. The D.C. United manager cited his initial message on Twitter on Wednesday morning along with the words “Nothing Has Changed,” a GOAT emoji, and a figure shrugging his shoulders.
The tweet received over 50,000 likes in just one hour after it was posted.
Rooney’s sarcastic retort would no doubt irritate Ronaldo, who wasn’t pleased with his former United teammate criticizing him earlier this season.
Rooney supported coach Erik ten Hag of Manchester United when the five times Ballon d’or winner was left out of Red Devils’ starting lineup.
During the 90 minutes of his interview with Morgan, Ronaldo was questioned about whether he thought the criticism was motivated by jealousy, given that Rooney’s playing career had ended in his early 30s while Ronaldo had continued to play elite football at 37.
“Probably,” Ronaldo responded. “Probably because he finished his career and I’m still playing at a high level. I’m not going to say that I’m looking better than him. Which is true,” he added with a smirk on his face.
It’s getting more challenging to make the case that Ronaldo is the GOAT after eliminating Wayne Rooney from the discussion.
The former Real Madrid, Juventus, and Sporting Lisbon superstar, who started Portugal’s shocking quarterfinal loss to Portugal on the bench and provided virtually little after coming on as a second-half substitute, was unable to save Portugal from being eliminated from the World Cup on Saturday.
Messi, on the other hand, has undoubtedly been the tournament’s best player after helping the high-flying Argentina team with four assists and five goals.
The 35-year-old calmly converted a penalty to give his country a 1-0 lead over Croatia in their lopsided semifinal before providing Julian Alvarez with a fantastic assist to seal the victory.
It would be much more impossible to argue that Messi is anything less than the finest footballer of all time if he wins the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He will face either France or Morocco in the final on Sunday.
What is Wayne Rooney’s beef with Cristiano Ronaldo?
Though one cannot ascertain the reason for Rooney’s dislike for his former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, but it could be seen that the former England forward have never rated the 5 times Ballon D’Or winner.
After Piers Morgan jokingly questioned whether Ronaldo had more money in the bank or Instagram followers, Ronaldo responded to what he viewed as criticism from Rooney in the media as he claimed the retired English footballer is jealous of him.
At the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai, where the former England captain was given the Player Career honor, Rooney responded to the remarks.
In an interview with CNN, Rooney said: “Well, listen, Cristiano Ronaldo’s a fantastic player and, as I’ve said before, he and [Lionel] Messi are the two best players probably to play the game.”
“And, again, it’s not a criticism. What I’ve said is age comes to all of us, and Cristiano is obviously feeling that and he’s finding it hard to deal with that.”
“Obviously he’s done an interview that’s gone global. Bit strange, some of the comments are strange in there but I’m sure Manchester United will deal with it once they’ve seen the full interview and they’ll take whatever action they need to take.”
