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Wayne Rooney rips into former Manchester United team-mate - 'I was even more p***** off'
MANCHESTER UNITED saw the best of Wayne Rooney during his time at Old Trafford.
Wayne Rooney in numbers
Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney has hilariously ripped into Kleberson in an interview with Alan Shearer. The current Derby boss played alongside the Brazilian under Sir Alex Ferguson. Both players had extremely different Old Trafford careers, however.
United signed Kleberson in the summer transfer window of 2002, shortly after the Brazilian had helped his country win the World Cup.
Rooney then followed two years later, touching down from Everton following some storming performances at the European Championships.
One of the highlights of Rooney’s career at United is his powerful, emphatic volley against Newcastle in 2005.
The England international was riled and vented his anger in the best way, expertly blasting the ball past Shay Given.
Rooney has now spoken to The Athletic about the goal and hilariously dug out Kleberson in the process, firing shots at his former team-mate.
“There was one bad tackle in particular — if it had been anyone else on the pitch, it would have been a yellow card!” he told Shearer.
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“I was p***** off. You can see it in my face.
“Then I saw Kleberson warming up on the touchline, ready to come on for me. I was even more p***** off that I was going to be taken off for him.”
These days, Rooney is keeping his temper in check.
He’s helping Derby stay afloat in the Championship. Had they not been docked 21 points as a penalty for their financial situation, they’d be 14th in the table.
They’re bottom at the moment but are still in with a shot of staying in the division.
And Rooney thinks they’ll know by February if they stand a chance of beating the drop.
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“We will know by February whether we have a chance of staying up,” he added.
“But for us to be talking about it now, at the turn of the year — even if it’s a small chance — the lads deserve a lot of credit.
“For the players, it’s a chance to create a legacy. It’s a chance to create history.
“Nobody has ever done it before, from minus 21 points, and stayed up.
“It’s an opportunity to become heroes with the fans. You could argue it would be the greatest achievement in the club’s history.
“There might not be a trophy at the end of the season for us to lift but, if we did stay up, it would be a massive achievement.”
Regarding Kleberson, the Brazilian never lived up to expectations in English football.
He initially joined United to compete with the likes of Roy Keane, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt for a starting berth.
Yet after two underwhelming years, he left for Besiktas.
Kleberson would go on to have spells at Flamengo, Atlético Paranaense, Flamengo, Bahia, Philadelphia Union, Indy Eleven and Fort Lauderdale Strikers before hanging up his boots in 2016.
Speaking last year, he admitted the level of United was simply too high for him to cope with.
"In the club at that time, we had players with great background – Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane – and they brought in young guys like me and Eric Djemba-Djemba to fight with those guys… it was not a fair fight, to be honest!” he said.
"Those guys knew how to play in the Premier League, they had grown up there.
“Me and Djemba-Djemba just had dreams of beating those guys, and they were very nice guys, very patient – saying that we were the future, trying to help us – but they were just too far ahead of us."
He added: "One thing that I struggled with personally were the injuries I had, which were pushing me back.
“Then you lose time, you have to recover, then you have to get good physically, good technically.
“Then we had to come back and compete against Scholes, Butt, Giggs, Keane.
“Those guys had been in the team for many, many years, they knew what was required.
“As new guys, we came in like: 'Ok, let’s play my style', but it didn’t work out that way."