England legend Wayne Rooney recently opened up on his infamous 2006 FIFA World Cup incident with Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo.
Rooney was sent off during a tense quarter-final game between the two sides at the Arena Auf Schalke after a poor challenge on Ricardo Carvalho.
Ronaldo was Rooney’s Manchester United teammate at that point in time. He played a big part in convincing the referee that the challenge was worthy of a red card for the English striker.
Many believed the Portuguese went out of proportion on his part to do so. However, Rooney has dismissed those suggestions as he spoke on Sports 18 ahead of England’s clash against Iran in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
“I tried to get him booked for diving as well, he was a teammate at United and at Portugal he was a rival.”
After a stalemate of over 120 minutes, the game headed to penalties. To rub salt in England’s wounds, Ronaldo scored the winning penalty for Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side in the tie-breaker.
Portugal eventually bowed out in the semi-finals of the tournament after a 1-0 loss to France, courtesy of a Zinedine Zidane penalty.
Wayne Rooney reacted to Cristiano Ronaldo’s comments ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup
Rooney recently provided a response to Ronaldo’s comments about him in an interview with Piers Morgan.
The former Real Madrid man was asked about Rooney criticizing him several times last year. The Portuguese said (via Mirror):
“I really don’t understand people like that, 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 was asked to share his take on the matter. At the 2022 Globe Soccer awards, he said:
“Oh listen, Cristiano’s a fantastic player. 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.”
Rooney further added:
“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.”
The five-time Ballon d’Or also criticized Manchester United and manager Erik ten Hag in the interview.