Former Manchester United star Wayne Rooney has, on Sunday, aimed a less-than-subtle jibe at former teammate and current Red Devils star Cristiano Ronaldo.
The name of one-time England international Rooney has of course taken its place front and centre in the headlines across the week to date.
This comes after the aforementioned Ronaldo made use of a now infamous interview session with presenter Piers Morgan to take aim at the tactician.
Evidently unhappy with the manner in which Rooney has spoken about him since hanging up his boots, Ronaldo insulted his appearance, before going as far as to insinuate that the one-time hitman is a ‘rat’:
Ronaldo calling Rooney a rat 💀 pic.twitter.com/xcuBYF3sxS
— george (@StokeyyG2) November 17, 2022
Upon initially being drawn on Ronaldo’s comments, Rooney opted to take the high road, in explaining that:
“I’ve always said it, Cristiano is a fantastic player. He and Lionel Messi are probably the two best players in history. I didn’t criticize him, what I said is that age catches up with us all. Cristiano is finding it hard to deal with that.”
During an appearance on Indian TV network JioCinema, Rooney was asked about his all-time XI, and who specifically, from the trio of Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Harry Kane, he would opt to leave out.
And the 37-year-old made use of the opportunity to aim a subtle dig at his former teammate:
“I’d have to start Messi, bench Kane and leave Ronaldo out,” Rooney replied.
When pressed on the reasons why, the Englishman added:
“He’s not playing for his club, so…”
Wayne Rooney was asked to start, bench and drop Messi, Kane and Ronaldo 😳 pic.twitter.com/c41gjk3jd2
— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) November 20, 2022
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