Comparing Neymar’s Barca & PSG stats with Wayne Rooney’s at Man Utd | OneFootball

Neymar vs. Wayne Rooney has been the big debate on social media following Rooney’s comments on the Brazilian’s career – but how do their stats compare? We’ve crunched the numbers.

“I like Neymar but I’ve never seen him as a top, top player. Like, Messi, Ronaldo, that kind of category,” Rooney said on The Overlap podcast during a new segment called ‘Unpopular Opinions’.

Rooney was responding to a statement from Gary Neville: “No Premier League player in history is better than a prime Neymar…”

Rooney further stoked the fire by suggesting a prime Mohamed Salah is better than a prime Neymar, which prompted Ian Wright to reply: “Salah is not better than Neymar. I’ll have to fight Wayne for that one.”

For much of the 2010s, Neymar was considered the third-best player in world football behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

He joined Barcelona from Santos in 2013 and formed part of an all-conquering front three with Messi and Luis Suarez.

But since moving to PSG in 2017, there’s been a groundswell of opinion that the forward never achieved his full potential, despite continuing to score consistently.

This is also an argument levelled at Rooney, despite his extensive accolades with Manchester United and England.

Rooney looked capable of becoming the best player of his generation after his Euro 2004 exploits, but he disappointed at international tournaments afterwards.

He was also overshadowed by Ronaldo at United, until the Portuguese left for Real Madrid in 2009.

But the striker is United’s record goalscorer and one of the best players in Premier League history. Plus, who can forget Wayne Rooney’s Street Striker, a fine example of late-Noughties television.

Both Neymar and Rooney were brilliant footballers, but the argument over who was better has split social media.

We’ve compared Neymar’s stats with Barcelona and PSG against Rooney’s United numbers to try and provide an answer to the ongoing debate.