W. Rooney: ‘L. Messi would have made the Premier League a weaker championship.’

2026-03-20 18:37 © Getty Images via AFP

The legendary Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney expressed his joy that Lionel Messi never played in the English league and praised this player:

"Watching Lamine Yamal's game against Premier League teams, I believe Sir Alex Ferguson was wrong.

He lied when he said that L. Messi would not be able to play on a cold, rainy night in an English city.

I think we were lucky that the Argentine never came to the Premier League – he would have made it significantly worse.

38-year-old Lionel Messi played for Barcelona from 2004 to 2021 and scored 672 goals in 778 matches.

The Argentine scored his 900th goal of his career on Wednesday.