Manchester United and England legend Wayne Rooney had some incredible battles against Chelsea during his playing career, and he’s just admitted he would have loved playing alongside a former Blues star.
Wayne Rooney did share a dressing room with some of the top Chelsea players of his generation whenever he joined up with England for international duty. For example, he regularly starred with the likes of Frank Lampard, John Terry and Ashley Cole for the Three Lions.
Incidentally, Wayne Rooney once praised John Terry by naming him as his toughest opponent in football.
In a new interview, Rooney has named the Chelsea figure he thinks it would’ve been great to play with.
Wayne Rooney would have loved to play with Didier Drogba
Rooney has shared that Didier Drogba is someone he would have loved to line up with.
He told The Overlap: “In European football and world football, there’s not many natural No 9s. Drogba was the one. For me, he was the one you look at, and I would have loved to play off Drogba and just fill in little areas where he wasn’t.”
Wayne Rooney admitted that Chelsea asked about him back in 2010, but he ended up staying put at Old Trafford. It’s certainly a good job for defences everywhere that a Drogba-Rooney partnership never came to life on the football pitch.
Without a doubt, Drogba is a true Chelsea legend for what he achieved in West London. The retired striker was phenomenal during nine years for the Blues, which spanned across two spells.
| Appearances | Goals | Assists | Trophies |
| 381 | 164 | 79 | 14 |
It cost the Blues a £24m transfer fee (BBC) to sign Drogba from Marseille back in 2004, which has to go down as one of the club’s greatest signings. He was part of the successful Blues spine that included Lampard, Terry and Petr Cech.
Yaya Toure’s admiration of Didier Drogba stretches so far that he believes the centre-forward should’ve won the Ballon d’Or individual prize during his playing career.
Regardless, Premier League audiences were spoilt in the 2000s that they got to watch the likes of Drogba and Rooney in their prime.
Chelsea still looking to find their Didier Drobga
It feels like the wait goes on for someone to come along and properly fill Drogba’s void at striker.
In fairness, Diego Costa was blistering at Chelsea between 2014 and 2017. He’s the only striker to even get close to Drogba’s levels for the Blues, though.
If Enzo Maresca wants to take the current side forward to the next step, he could really do with a prolific frontman to lead the line each week. While central striker Nicolas Jackson, 23, is a decent option for Chelsea, he’s crying out for some more support in the squad.
Sporting Lisbon frontman Viktor Gyokeres is a ‘top target’ for Chelsea ahead of the summer. He looks like he could be exactly what the Blues need after scoring 52 goals in 49 games across all competitions this season for Sporting.
