Wayne Rooney insists Messi and Ronaldo era is over - names world's new best player

Wayne Rooney has declared that the Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo era in football has reached its end, and he has revealed the player he thinks is presently the best in the world.

As the manager of D.C. United in Major League Soccer, Wayne Rooney, the iconic figure of Manchester United and England, has announced that he considers Erling Haaland, the striker for Manchester City, to be the top player in the world.

Since his £51 million transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester City last summer, Erling Haaland, who is only 22 years old, has been outstanding.

Out of his 42 appearances for Manchester City, Haaland has managed to score an impressive 48 goals, with 32 of them being in the Premier League.

“Erling Haaland is the best footballer in the world right now,” Rooney wrote in his latest column for The Times. “Lionel Messi is the greatest but, at this moment, nobody is playing better than a striker who — even though I broke records in that position myself — takes my breath away with the levels he’s reaching.

“He’s the best in the world because of the numbers he’s posting, the performances he’s putting in and the mentality he shows.”

Rooney has gone as far as to predict that Haaland will surpass Messi and win the Ballon d'Or in 2023.

While Messi is expected to win the highly coveted award for the eighth time this year, having inspired Argentina to World Cup victory, Rooney believes that Haaland is even more deserving of the honor.

The former Premier League star added: “If you’re looking at who is going to win the Ballon d’Or then it has got to be him, providing he keeps up his form of this season. And why wouldn’t he? A record of 224 goals in 264 games is the mark of a player whose standards don’t drop.

“We’ve had the era of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, now this is his time, the era of Haaland and Kylian Mbappé. When there is a talent like him around you just have to enjoy it — even if he is wearing a Manchester City shirt.

“After the Community Shield, when he was getting stick, I wrote that I had no doubts about him and that he would go on to prove the difference in the title race. I always felt he was the player who was going to take City where they needed to go.

“I was wrong about one thing, though. I said Haaland was capable of scoring a goal a game in the Premier League and in fact he has 32 goals in 28 appearances. It’s very rare to see someone quite so lethal.”

According to Rooney, Haaland has the potential to reign over football for the next decade, similar to how Messi and Ronaldo have dominated the sport for the past 15 years."

“One of the things I like most about him is how different he is to nearly all modern players,” Rooney said. “Everyone wants the ball to feet these days but he wants to run off the ball in almost an old-fashioned way — run in behind and use his power to get clear, then his composure to beat the keeper.

“There’s something raw about how he plays, his hunger to score is huge. Like Messi and Ronaldo did, he could dominate the game for ten years.”