Wayne Rooney's Manchester United career is one for the ages.

Even the most optimistic of supporters couldn't have expected the young striker who signed from Everton into 2004 to go onto become the greatest goalscorer Old Trafford had ever seen.

But that's exactly what Rooney achieved across 13 glorious years at the 'Theatre of Dreams' as well as reaping five Premier League titles and the Champions League trophy for good measure.

Rooney's time at Man Utd

However, for all of Rooney's brilliance, he couldn't have achieved that level of success without Sir Alex Ferguson in the dugout and some world-class talent with him on the pitch.

Besides, as time has gone on, the unbridled quality of United's Premier League-winning sides has only sunk in more and more with reams of top-level footballers donning the famous red jersey.

And while the likes of Eric Cantona, Jaap Stam and Peter Schmeichel never crossed paths with Rooney, most of the modern-day United legends did indeed occupy the same dressing room.

p1ent96bs01nre17q514vno5lsjh.jpg

Rooney's incredible teammates

As a result, it's a pretty juicy question to quiz Rooney on the greatest footballer he ever played alongside at United and that's exactly what the legendary club did themselves recently.

Rooney's appearance on the UTD Podcast has already brought fascinating anecdotes on his 2004 arrival at United as well as the European giants he could have signed for in 2010.

But few nuggets of information can be more interesting than Rooney's favourite teammate and contrary to what many of you must be thinking, it isn't the legendary Cristiano Ronaldo.

p1ent95bpsoh15vb17me1skb16hgf.jpg

Rooney hails Paul Scholes

Rather, per the Mirror, Rooney answered the question by saying: "Scholesy, I think, obviously Ronaldo has gone on, him and Messi, to probably be the best two players to ever play the game.

"But I just think at the time, Scholesy was brilliant. The things he could do with the ball, he obviously weren’t the quickest but he was so sharp you couldn’t get near him.

"I remember knowing that at the back end of my career I’d be going back into midfield so I was almost studying him and watching him in training and games.

"It was brilliant for me, first hand, to watch him and learn."

p1ent990kb1e9n1nl0198rs6c15psl.jpg

More praise for Scholes

While, rightly or wrongly, so many fans - myself included - like to poke holes in Scholes' statistics, it's hard not to think twice when you consider how highly former pros speak about the United icon.

When the likes of Lionel Messi, Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and now Rooney are waxing lyrical about the midfield wizard, you can't help but sit up and take notice of those know the game best.

Besides, even though we never saw the greatest version of Ronaldo at United, make no mistake that Scholes earning a nod over the Premier League's last Ballon d'Or winner is a huge compliment.

p1ent97ona1dvh1v3r8241toj1um2j.jpg