Rio Ferdinand has recalled how he was the one to get Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney “together” to sort out their differences after the 2006 World Cup quarter-final.
Rooney was sent off an hour into England’s quarter-final against Portugal in 2006 after stamping on Ricardo Carvalho with Ronaldo urging the referee to brandish a red card.
When the official gave Rooney his marching orders the cameras zoomed in on his Manchester United team-mate Ronaldo winking, leading to a huge backlash from England fans.
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England crashed out on penalties and Ferdinand recalls Ronaldo asking him to get United team-mate Rooney for a chat about the incident.
“It was on the coach immediately afterwards,” Ferdinand told his Vibe with Five YouTube channel. “Wazza was hot in the changing rooms and I think a few people got him and said ‘it’s not how you might think it is, it’s not like that.’.
“Then we got onto the coaches, I think Cristiano pulled me and said ‘Ri, can you go and get Wayne, I just want to talk to him and tell him I didn’t mean anything, there’s no animosity or malice in what I’ve done – we’re both on the same team, I would never do that, he’s my boy, my guy’.
“So I went and got Wazza and said ‘listen, Cris wants to talk to you’ so I got him off the coach and put them together but from that point on I didn’t say anything.
“I don’t know if I squashed it, they did that themselves but I was the one who got them together.”
Rooney recently admitted that there was no bad blood between the pair following the incident and said he tried to get Ronaldo booked in the first half for diving.
“There is no issue with me whatsoever, I would have done exactly the same trying to get England a win against Portugal,” Rooney told the Daily Mail.
“I said: ‘Listen, you’re going to get a lot of stick from the press, I’m going to get a lot of stick from the press, my focus now is on Man United’.
“I actually tried to get him booked in the first half for diving. I’m playing for England, he’s playing for Portugal, do whatever you can to win.
“Honestly, I still don’t know whether I stamped on Carvalho on purpose or not. Still. I must have just had a blank.”
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