Wayne Rooney has hailed Lionel Messi as the best player the world has ever seen despite being a former team-mate of the Barcelona star's great rival Cristiano Ronaldo

Rooney played with Ronaldo at Manchester United between 2004 and 2009, but despite being a big admirer of the Juventus ace's talents he thinks Messi is better.

During his time at United, Rooney twice lost to Messi's Barcelona in the Champions League final.

Barcelona star Lionel Messi (pictured) is the best player of all time, according to Wayne Rooney

Rooney was on the losing side against Messi in the 2011 Champions League final at Wembley

And after Messi shone in Barca's 4-2 group-stage win over Tottenham at Wembley last week, Rooney reflected on his two final defeats, which came in 2009 and 2011 .

He said: 'In both games if we had been against any other team but Barcelona you would have fancied us to win.

'In my eyes they are the best team ever and Messi is the best player ever. What he gets to do is incredible. Messi has just got a bit of everything.

'Ronaldo has gone from a winger to a striker and a goalscorer.

'Rather than taking players on all the time, he has gone more one or two touch, getting in the box and scoring goals.

'Messi a bit of everything - you see him scoring goals from playing probably a deep midfield role at times, and where I'm probably still walking on the pitch he's scoring. So he is probably the best.'

Messi and Ronaldo have won the last 10 Ballon d'Or titles between them with five apiece but Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric is the odds-on favourite for the prize this year.

Rooney now plays for DC United in the USA and he scored twice as they beat Chicago Fire to continue their push for a play-off spot on Sunday night.

Rooney has also been full of praise for former team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo, seen (left) in 2014