Wayne Rooney kept match ball despite Man Utd’s Champions League final defeat
Wayne Rooney has explained why he kept hold of the match ball after Manchester United's Champions League final humbling at the hands of Barcelona in 2011.
The Red Devils' record goalscorer won the Champions League once during his career back in 2008 – losing in the final for a second time three years later to a side inspired by Lionel Messi, with David Villa and Pedro also on target.
Speaking of his decision to keep the ball after the game, having scored what would turn out to be a consolation goal, Rooney spoke in delight of his rival players.
READ MORE: Wayne Rooney insists 'nothing's changed' in his view of Lionel Messi 10 years on
Rooney wrote in The Times: "Only once in my career did I go home with the match ball from a game where I wasn’t given it for scoring a hat-trick.
"That was the 2011 Champions League final, when Barcelona beat Manchester United with one of the best team performances I’ve ever seen."
Rooney went on to explain that he signed the ball and asked Messi, Villa and Pedro to do the same, because of the nature of their performance.
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He added: "Why would I do something like that? We’d lost a final and I was gutted but I also had this sense of having been part of something special.
"It was a feeling that I had just shared a pitch with some of the greatest players who ever played. Barcelona were incredible and Messi was the catalyst for all of it."
DC United boss Rooney tweeted after that game that Messi was the greatest player on the planet, retweeting that opinion after Argentina's World Cup glory.
Messi looks set to continuing playing for his country despite winning the biggest prize in football, as well as considering extending his stay with PSG.
The 35-year-old is currently back in Argentina celebrating his triumph, which came thanks to a penalty shoot-out having drawn 3-3 with France.
Across the tournament Messi broke a series of record including becoming the first player at five different tournaments, as well as the first player to win two Golden Ball awards having doing so for a first time in 2014.
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