Former Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney has defended Lionel Messi and the Major League Soccer (MLS) after Cristiano Ronaldo hit out at the USA-based football competition.
Rooney shares a bitter relationship with Ronaldo ever since the latter returned for his second stint at United in 2021. The two exchanged several jibes at each other with Ronaldo even claiming that Rooney was jealous of his longevity and looks during his controversial interview with Piers Morgan late last year. Now, Rooney has come out in defence of Messi. The ex-England international is managing D.C. United in the MLS.
“This league (MLS) has all the capabilities of becoming one of the biggest leagues. You can see how Saudi are trying to get certain players. So for MLS to get Messi was huge. How better to show it can compete with the Saudi riches than by getting Messi?" Roooney questioned.
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This comment comes after Ronaldo mentioned that the Saudi Pro League is of a higher quality than the MLS, which was joined by his arch-nemesis Messi.
“The Saudi league is better than MLS. I opened the way to the Saudi league, and now all the players are coming here. In one year, more and more top players will come to Saudi. In a year the Saudi league will overtake the Turkish league and Dutch league,” Ronaldo explained in a recent media interaction.
“I'm 100 percent sure I won't return to any European club. I'm 38 years old. And European football has lost a lot of quality. The only valid one and still doing good is the Premier League. They're way ahead of all the other leagues,” he further mentioned.
Several top stars from European football like Karim Benzema, Roberto Firmino, and N’Golo Kante have joined the Saudi league in the current transfer window.
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