Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has opened up on his dream five-aside team, leaving out former team-mates Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney despite their achievements at Old Trafford.
Manchester United hero Paul Scholes played with many outstanding players throughout his own glorious stints at Old Trafford. As a result, there’s no place for the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney in his dream five-aside team. All three players were team-mates at United, forming a key part of Sir Alex Ferguson’s title-winning teams between 2007 and 2009.
Scholes was recently asked by United who he’d name in his dream five-aside team.
He played with some iconic goalkeepers during his spell, with David De Gea and Edwin van der Sar among them, but it’s Peter Schmeichel who gets the nod in goal.
Nemanja Vidic was once his captain, while the treble was won in 1999 alongside Jaap Stam and Denis Irwin.
Yet Scholes selected Rio Ferdinand instead. The duo secured six league titles together, becoming team-mates after Ferdinand’s move from Leeds in 2002.
In midfield, there was no place for himself as Roy Keane and Ryan Giggs made the cut.
And Ronaldo and Rooney, two players who are regarded as two of the finest to have performed for Ferguson at Old Trafford, were snubbed for Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Van Nistelrooy scored 150 goals for the club during a five-year stint.
Earlier in the season, Scholes waxed lyrical over the Dutchman with Gary Neville during an episode of Sky Sports’ The Overlap.
“We argue about this,” Neville said. “I love Ruud, we both love Ruud, I do, but I say Manchester United needed counter-attacking players, we needed power and pace when we had, like, Yorke and Cole, or Rooney and Tevez, those types of power players that ran the channels and they were pressing. We were very different with Ruud, but you liked that period with Ruud didn’t you.”
Scholes responded: “I loved playing with Ruud because I knew what he wanted without speaking to him, if you know what I mean.
“I don’t think it’s true [that I was the only one who spot his runs], but I just knew what he wanted and at that time I was playing number 10 really, I wasn’t playing in centre-midfield.
“Do you know what, football is all about that, your relationships with people. I don’t think you see a lot of that these days.”
Source: express.co.uk
