‘Baller’: Antonio Rudiger says striker Man Utd signed for £26m was better than Robin van Persie

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Manchester United have had some truly incredible strikers in their recent history.

The likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Robin van Persie and Dimitar Berbatov all won the Golden Boot at Old Trafford during their time with the Red Devils.

However, according to Antonio Rudiger, there’s another striker who is top of the pile, and he never actually won a Golden Boot.

Indeed, speaking to Goal on TikTok, Rudiger named Wayne Rooney as the best of each of the aforementioned strikers as he was asked to compare some of the Premier League’s greatest number nines.

Antonio Rudiger praises Wayne Rooney

The German spoke about the one-time £26m Man United signing.

“Rooney or Van Nistelrooy,” Rudiger was asked.

“Rooney,” Rudiger replied

“Rooney or Van Persie?” Rudiger was asked.

“No, Rooney,” Rudiger said.

“Rooney or Berbatov?” Rudiger was finally asked.

“Oh that guy was a baller, but still I’ll go with Rooney,” Rudiger concluded.

Very close

Now this is a tough debate.

Rooney holds all sorts of records at Manchester United and he was utterly brilliant for the Red Devils, but as a pure striker, there are arguments to make here.

Rooney never won a Golden Boot, while all of the other players mentioned have, and it has to be said that Van Persie and Van Nistelrooy were arguably better finishers.

However, what made Rooney so great wasn’t necessarily his finishing ability, he was also one of the hardest workers and best creators in English football for a period, and he played a massive part in United’s later success under Alex Ferguson.

It’s tough to debate who United’s best striker of the Premier League era is, but whenever this topic of conversation comes up, Rooney has to be towards the top of the list, that’s for sure.