Sir Alex Ferguson and Wayne Rooney
Sir Alex Ferguson has compared Wayne Rooney to Manchester United legend Sir Bobby Charlton ahead of the England international’s testimonial for the club.
Rooney, 30, will play his United testimonial against his former club Everton on Wednesday at Old Trafford, having made 520 appearances for the Red Devils, with the match streamed live on Facebook.
The forward — described as the Premier League’s best ever player by Everton legend Duncan Ferguson — has scored 245 goals in those appearances, four short of Charlton’s all-time club record from 758 outings.
Ferguson, who signed Rooney from Everton 12 years ago, won five Premier League titles working with the forward, and also lifted the Champions League in 2008.
The Scot, who had disagreements with Rooney in the past, told the official United programme: “He [Rooney] was an exciting signing [in 2004]. It was fairly shortly after I’d got rid of the idea of retiring and changed my mind, and I had to rethink about how we were going to take the club forward.
“When you make the decision to retire, you stop thinking, but once I decided to stay I started thinking again and it was really centred around bringing energy back into the team by looking at young players.
“Of course there was Cristiano Ronaldo, then there was Rooney, and it was a fantastic period. The two of them were unbelievable.
“Wayne came in as a first-team player right away, even though he was only 18, and he’s gone on to play for Manchester United for 12 years, which is very difficult in the present day.
“I always think that great players can play in any era. Bobby Charlton would have been a great player today and Wayne Rooney would have been a great player back then.”
Former United manager Louis van Gaal has also praised England captain Rooney, adding: “I was very quickly convinced of his personality and that’s why he was easy to work with. I quickly decided he would be my captain because I saw also the attitude of his fellow players towards him.
“They approached him always with a lot of respect and that’s also important when you have to install a captain. It is very important that he is seen by his fellow players as a very important person in the dressing room, and there is no question that he is very important at United.”
Meanwhile, Rooney’s childhood hero and former Everton great Duncan Ferguson has named the United striker as the “best player we’ve ever had” in the Premier League.
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