Wayne Rooney gave a conciliatory response when quizzed on the scathing comments former Manchester United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo fired his way earlier this week.
Ronaldo took aim at the England legend during his explosive interview with Piers Morgan after taking offence at advice he was given. Rooney warned the Portugal captain not to become an "unwanted distraction" after he stormed down the tunnel and left Old Trafford early during the Premier League fixture against Tottenham.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner, 37, accused Rooney, also 37, of being jealous of his playing career and his good looks. Ronaldo admitted their relationship had suffered irreparable damage only weeks after Rooney was round at his house.
"I really don't understand people like that," Ronaldo said of Rooney and other pundits who criticise him. "Or if they want to be in a cover of the paper of the news, or they want new jobs or whatever. It's easy to criticise but if you don't know the whole story, it's easy. They are not my friends."
Rooney and Ronaldo were teammates at Old Trafford for five seasons, winning numerous honours together. Despite his former teammate's withering comments, the Red Devils' all-time leading goalscorer appeared reluctant to full burn his bridges with Ronaldo.
Instead, Rooney stressed that Ronaldo is one of the two greatest players of all time and explained that his previous comments were not intended as criticism. He was quizzed on Ronaldo's interview with Morgan at the 2022 Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai on Thursday, where he won the Player Career Award, and replied: "Oh listen, Cristiano's a fantastic player.
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"As I've said before, him and [Lionel] Messi are the two best players, probably, ever to play the game. And again, it's no criticism, what I've said is, 'Age comes to all of us'. Cristiano, obviously, is feeling that and has found it hard to deal with that and, obviously, he's done an interview and it's gone global.
"They're strange, some of the comments, they're strange, 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."
As Rooney suspected, United are already weighing up how to respond to Ronaldo's interview and instructed their lawyers to look into his comments this week. The Red Devils could sack the former Real Madrid and Juventus superstar if his disciplinary breach is found to be serious enough.
On Friday morning, following the broadcast of both parts of the interview, the club released a fresh statement which read: "Manchester United has this morning initiated appropriate steps in response to Cristiano Ronaldo's recent media interview. We will not be making further comment until this process reaches its conclusion."
