Manchester United’s all-time top goalscorer Wayne Rooney has given his take on the “best passer in football history” debate as he snubbed former teammate Paul Scholes.
Rooney appeared as a pundit on Amazon Prime’s coverage of the Champions League last 16 second-leg clash between Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night.
The 39-year-old, who was most recently the head coach at Plymouth Argyle, named Mohamed Salah as the best player in the world during the broadcast.
And ahead of kick-off at Anfield, Rooney brought up the Egyptian forward again as he took part in an entertaining Q&A session with popular TikTok personality Ben Black.
Here, the former England international named Cristiano Ronaldo as the best he played alongside before picking Ruud van Nistelrooy as the best finisher he’d seen over the years.
As you can see from the footage below, Rooney was also asked to give his thoughts on the so-called “best passer” in football history, which brought an answer that came as a surprise to many watching at home.
Without much hesitation, he opted against the likes of Paul Scholes or Andres Iniesta and named David Beckham as the best passer.
Here’s how fans on social media reacted to Rooney’s answer.
One said: “Best passer? Only one man for the job. Steven Gerrard by a country mile,” while another commented: “The best passer was Paul Scholes.”
A third wrote: “Beckham over someone like Xavi?” and a fourth said: “Best passer of all time is either Andres Iniesta or Kevin de Bruyne.”
A fifth added: “Lionel Messi is the best passer while Cristiano Ronaldo is the best finisher.
In the video, Rooney also named Paul Gascoigne as both the greatest English player of all time, and the player he wanted to be like growing up.
After presenter Black asked: “Who is the best English player of all-time? You can say yourself”, the former Manchester United striker replied: “No, I’ll say Gazza, I think he was just so, so good.”
Gascoigne and Rooney go way back. At the start of the new millennium, a 14-year-old Rooney was playing for Everton‘s youth team when Gazza, who was playing for the Toffees at the time after joining from Middlesbrough, decided to go and watch.
After coming on as a substitute at 1-0 down, a teenage Rooney soon made a significant impact on Gascoigne.
“When I was at Everton I used to go and watch the youth team play, the Under 19s, before we played,” he told Soccer AM.
“I think it was Colin Harvey (in charge) at the time and he said to watch this young kid, he’s 14 and playing for the under-19s. I thought I’d stay and watch for a little bit and he came on when they were getting beat 1-0 with 20 minutes to go.
“He banged in two goals. I think you can watch them on TV – they’re incredible. What a player. I thought he’s going to be good.”
Speaking to ‘Back of the Net’ on Amazon Prime in 2019, Rooney remembers when Gascoigne visited Everton U19’s after a game in 2000.
“I remember Gazza coming to see us in the changing room and asking ‘Is anyone going out tonight? I’ll give you a bit of money’. Me being confident I say ‘yes’, and Gazza came up to me and gave me £40.
“It was only a few years ago when I saw him again, he asked for his £40 back!”
