Wayne Rooney has spoken about his relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo during the Portuguese forward's time with Manchester United.
In his upcoming book 'My Decade in the Premier League', Rooney also reveals the situation that surrounded that infamous red card in the quarterfinal of the 2006 World Cup.
"There's a mirror by Ronaldo's seat in the Old Trafford dressing room," Rooney says in an extract published by the Daily Mirror.
"In the time I've been playing with Ronnie, the one thing I've noticed about him is that he can't walk past his reflection without admiring it, even if we're about to play a game of football.
"Every match, before the team goes out for the warm-up, he runs through the same routine. The kit goes on, the boots go on. Not long after, Ronnie turns to his reflection and stares, psyching himself up for the game.
"If there's one person with a bigger self-belief than Ronaldo, I haven't met him yet. He's not shy.
"He tells us he wants to be the best player in the world, that he's desperate to be the greatest."
The relationship between Rooney and Ronaldo reportedly broke down after the former was red-carded in England's World Cup quarterfinal against Portugal, thanks to some gamesmanship from Ronaldo. Rooney, however, refuted any suggestions of a problem between the two.
"As I protested my innocence, Ronnie started waving an imaginary card around, getting in the ref's face. The official pulled out the red and I was off.
"When I walked to the tunnel, I knew I couldn't really blame Ronaldo for what had happened because he was trying to win the game for his country.
"I knew what was in store, so when I bumped into him in the tunnel after the game I gave him a heads up.
"'The fans will be going mad over this one,' I said. 'They'll be trying to make a big deal of it, so we'll just have to get on with things as normal because there will be talk all summer.'
"He understood, he's a bright lad, but not long afterwards the papers reckoned he was off to Real Madrid; apparently me and him weren't talking, which was absolute rubbish.
"The truth is I like Ronaldo, always have done. He's a good lad and great to have around the dressing room.
"The United lads loved the drama, though.
"Everyone gave us stick and when we turned up for the first session back at the club someone even brought in a pair of boxing gloves, as if the pair of us were going to have a scrap before we warmed up for the morning.
"But after our first practice game together, everything was as right as rain. I could tell that we were going to have a cracking season."
