Cristiano Ronaldo owes it all to Wayne Rooney, claims Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Ibrahimovic's claims were made while he was being interviewed for a forthcoming documentary about Rooney, which has already revealed several interesting nuggets about the Manchester United striker.

"When Cristiano Ronaldo played at United, Rooney did all the work but Cristiano took all the glory," said the Swedish superstar.

"He was the one who was getting the goals. Rooney ran, fought and made far more of a team sacrifice than the player from Madeira."

[ANALYSIS: BS Detector: Wayne Rooney's phantom transfer request]

Ibrahimovic added that he would love to have played, or play in the future, with Rooney.

"If I can’t play alongside Wayne, then I’ll just need to keep watching him on television," he said.

"Great players have exceptional phases that last from between one to three years, it’s not normal that this phase lasts five years as in the case with Rooney."

Well, he always goes to extremes, you can say that about Zlatan. We'd not have been in the least bit surprised if he'd denied ever having heard of Rooney, and we're equally unshocked by this lavish praise. That's not to suggest that there isn't a grain of truth here. Rooney did fit into a team built around Ronaldo at times, and it's telling that he laid on a career-high 13 Premier League assists in 2007-8, the season when Ronaldo scored 31 league goals as he hit his pre-Real Madrid high water mark.