‘Age comes to us all’: Wayne Rooney responds to Cristiano Ronaldo criticism in interview with Piers Morgan

Wayne Rooney has responded in a dignified manner to Cristiano Ronaldo’s insults and criticism this week in the interview that aired between the Manchester United attacker and Piers Morgan.

During the 90-minute chat with the TV presenter, Ronaldo criticised Erik ten Hag, Ralf Rangnick, the Glazers and his current team-mates, while he also had a pop at Rooney and Gary Neville, who he shared a dressing room with during his first stint at Old Trafford. The Portugal international claimed the duo used his name to enhance their own status, said they are not his ‘friends’ and had a dig at Rooney’s appearance.

"I’m not going to say that I’m looking better than him. Which is true,” Ronaldo told Morgan. He also made a comment which could be interpreted as referring to Rooney as a ‘rat’. When discussing his reaction to the interview, the Portugal forward said: “Not only him, imagine the rest of the rats they are going to criticise me too, but it is good to still be the number one.”

But asked for his reaction to the explosive interview, Rooney hinted that, in his eyes, Ronaldo is no longer ‘number one’. He 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,” the current DC United manager said at the Globe Soccer Awards.

"And, again, it’s not a criticism. What I’ve said is age comes to all of us, and Cristiano is obviously feeling now that he’s finally had to deal with that. Obviously, he’s done an interview, and it’s gone global, and it’s strange, some of the comments are strange. But I’m sure Manchester United will deal with it once they’ve seen the full interview, and they will take whatever action they need to take,” he added.