Wayne Rooney played alongside many a footballer during his illustrious career.
The man born in Croxteth, Liverpool played professionally for 19 years, with his 366 appearances alongside Michael Carrick the most times he shared a pitch with any other footballer.
Such a lengthy career at the very highest level means the Liverpudlian would have rarely played alongside anyone that bad at the sport – although there was one teammate Wayne Rooney found “frustrating” to play with.
Wayne Rooney picked Nani as his worst teammate
Quite surprisingly, the 39-year-old chose Nani as his worst teammate when speaking to Rob Burrow on the Seven podcast.
Rooney – who feels Paul Gascoigne is the best English player ever – said: “On the pitch, the toughest one was Nani. He was frustrating to play with.”
The man from Amadora will surely have something to say about that.
Let’s talk about @LuisNani‘s outside-of-the boot assist ↩️#MUFC #GoalOfTheDay pic.twitter.com/JFyglJJvng
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 11, 2021
Nani and Rooney combined for 23 goals throughout the 155 games they played together – only Cristiano Ronaldo can boast more with 26.
Of those 23 goals, Nani teed up the Englishman on 17 occasions, and seemingly had a strong connection with Manchester United’s record Premier League goalscorer on the pitch.
Therefore, it is quite a shock to hear Rooney single the 38-year-old out as his worst teammate.
Who Wayne Rooney selected as his best teammate
Rooney – who said Ruud van Nistelrooy is the best finisher ever – played with some true legends of the game, such as David Beckham, Roy Keane, Robin van Persie, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.
“One of the great goals in the history of the Manchester derby!”@WayneRooney @ManUtd #GoalOfTheDay #PL pic.twitter.com/OXFCDgpAJO
— Premier League (@premierleague) December 5, 2019
However, none of those names were mentioned when he was asked to select his best teammate – instead, that honour went to Darren Fletcher.
Rooney said: “My best teammate, I’d say Darren Fletcher. There were a few – John O’Shea, Wes Brown, Michael Carrick – we were all really close, but Fletch was probably the one. We sat next to each other in the dressing room and shared really good moments on and off the pitch together.”
The Scot made 228 appearances alongside Rooney – incredibly averaging 2.21 points per game while combining to score ten goals – so you can see why he made the cut.
