Former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has sent another response to Cristiano Ronaldo following the Portugal international's criticism of his former teammate.
The second and final part of Ronaldo's interview with Piers Morgan aired on Thursday night. Although there is now no more to be said by the United forward, the impact of his comments will no doubt be felt for quite some time.
Among the many targets during his interview, the 37-year-old hit out at some of his former teammates, as he took aim at Rooney for what he saw as the MLS coach being jealous of his longevity in the game.
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Ronaldo said: "To listen as ex-colleagues or teammates criticise you, when they only see one point of view. It's easy to criticise, I don't know if you have a job in television that they must criticise to be more famous. I really don't understand it.
"It's hard when you see people who was in the dressing room with you criticising that way. I think they take advantage of that because they are not stupid. I'm the number one followed guy in the world. It's not by coincidence.
"Me too [surprised about this]. Piers, I don't understand. You should ask the questions to him [Rooney]. I don't know. I don't know why he criticised me so badly. Probably [jealously]. Probably - because he finished his career in his 30s. I'm still playing at a high level; I'm not going to say that I'm looking better than him, which is true."
Rooney has recently admitted he hopes his former teammate wins the World Cup, in what would be a "fitting end" to his career. And the D.C. United head coach has now responded directly to the United No.7's interview comments.
Speaking to CNN, Rooney said: "He’s a fantastic player. Him and [Lionel] Messi are probably the two best players to play the game. It’s not criticism, what I’ve said is age comes to all of us, Cristiano is finding it hard to deal with that.
“He’s done an interview and it’s gone global - bit strange some of the comments but I’m sure Manchester United will deal with it once they see the full interview and take whatever action they need to take."
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