Zlatan Ibrahimovic has claimed that Manchester United teammate Wayne Rooney 'deserves more respect' for his achievements in the game.
Rooney became Man United's all-time leading goalscorer in European competition when he found the back of the net in Thursday's 4-0 win over Feyenoord in the Europa League.
The goal came during a period where the England captain has been under the microscope after pictures emerged of the 31-year-old appearing intoxicated in the team hotel during the last international break.
Ibrahimovic, however, has branded Rooney 'a fantastic person' and said that his club teammate's achievements should be celebrated by the English media.
"First of all, as a person, he's fantastic. I had the luck to get to know the person. As a player, there are no words. He's the perfect player: everybody knows what he can do and what he has done," Ibrahimovic told reporters.
"When you're a person like that, people are interested. I don't know what happened [on England duty] and I didn't even ask him because it's not important for me, and I'm 100% sure that the media doesn't know what really happened.
"I think we should appreciate the player he is. I don't see many players from England who have had the career he has, so I feel a little bit sorry for the situation, we should show more respect for him. Everybody wants to make a little thing a big thing. But I'm used to that from Sweden. So I don't mind."
Following the Feyenoord match, Rooney said that it was "a shame" that he had to continue to face questions about the incident on international duty after 'not setting foot in the wedding'.
Matt Law
