Former England and Manchester United star Wayne Rooney said he would drop his former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo if he were managing him.
Rooney, who was part of JioCinema's pre-match panel ahead of the FIFA World Cup opener between Qatar and Ecuador, responded to a game of 'Play, Bench and Drop' featuring Ronaldo, Argentine superstar Lionel Messi and England skipper Harry Kane.
“I would start Messi, bench Kane and drop Ronaldo because he stopped playing for his club,” the Manchester United legend said.
This comes amid a war of words between the former Manchester United teammates, with Rooney criticising Ronaldo's behaviour at the club.
Ronaldo hit back at Rooney during his controversial interview with Piers Morgan this past week. Ronaldo said he was "better looking" than the English legend and claimed the latter's comments were out of jealousy.
“I don’t know why he criticises me so badly… 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,” said the 37-year-old Portuguese.
He furthered his attack with a 'rat' jibe directed at Rooney after Morgan asked Ronaldo, "I'm just trying to work out how Wayne Rooney could hate you even more?"
He responded, "Not only him, imagine the rest of the rats they are going to criticise me too, but it is good to still be the No 1."
Rooney, in his response, called Ronaldo's comments "a bit strange" and said the club would take "whatever action they needed to" upon watching the full interview.
"He’s a fantastic player. He and [Lionel] Messi are probably the two best players to play the game. It’s not a criticism, what I’ve said is age comes to all of us, Cristiano is finding it hard to deal with that," the DC United coach said to CNN.
Ronaldo's ill-advised interview has got him into deep trouble with his club Manchester United. The club responded by saying it had "initiated appropriate steps" against the Portuguese for his dubious comments on manager Erik ten Hag, teammates, executives and owners.
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