Wayne Rooney has aimed a thinly-veiled dig at Cristiano Ronaldo by once again proclaiming that Lionel Messi is the greatest player of all time.
The Manchester United legend was recently ridiculed by former teammate Ronaldo, who brutally took aim at him during an explosive interview with Piers Morgan which eventually led to his contract with the Red Devils being terminated. Now Rooney, who's frequently criticised the Portuguese in recent months, has landed a counter blow following Messi's heroics at the World Cup.
After producing yet another mesmeric performance for Argentina as they reached the final on Tuesday, Rooney stumbled upon one of his old tweets from more than a decade ago. "Messi is a joke. For me the best ever," the ex- England captain stated in March 2012.
10 years later and the now retired Rooney's opinion still stands firm. Taking to Twitter on Wednesday morning, the D.C. United boss quoted his original post and wrote: "Nothing has changed," alongside a goat emoji and man shrugging his shoulders. The tweet gathered more than 50,000 likes within an hour of being posted.
It's a cheeky response from Rooney which is sure to irk Ronaldo, who wasn't happy with his former United pal criticising him earlier this season. As the five-time Ballon d'Or winner - of which Messi has seven - found himself out of Red Devils manager Erik ten Hag 's starting XI, Rooney put on record that he agreed.
During his 90-minute interview with Morgan, Ronaldo was asked whether he believed that the criticism came out of jealousy - taking into account how Rooney's playing career tailed off in his early 30s, all while Ronaldo continued to perform at a high level.
"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 smile.
Taking Rooney out of the equation, it's becoming harder to argue that Ronaldo is indeed the GOAT. The ex- Real Madrid, Juventus and Sporting Lisbon hero was powerless to stop Portugal being knocked out of the World Cup last Saturday, having started their shock quarter-final defeat to Portugal on the bench and offering very little after coming on as a second-half substitute.
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Messi, on the other hand, has arguably been the player of the tournament, scoring five goals and providing four assists for high-flying Argentina. The 35-year-old confidently dispatched a penalty to put his nation 1-0 up against Croatia in their one-sided semi-final before pulling off a marvellous assist for Julian Alvarez to wrap the game up.
If Messi were to win the World Cup, having faced either France or Morocco in Sunday's final, then it'd become even more difficult to deny that the Paris Saint-Germain superstar isn't anyone but the best to ever do it.
