Following Lionel Messi’s historic performance against Austria at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, a famous photo of 14-year-old England and Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney has resurfaced online, sending football fans into a frenzy.The year was 2012. Captain Lionel Messi had just scored an unbelievable five goals in one UEFA Champions League match for Barcelona against Bayer Leverkusen. Seeing the magic happening, the amazing Wayne Rooney took to his X account (formerly Twitter) to make the obvious announcement.“Messi is a joke. For me the best,” Rooney wrote on March 7, 2012.Fast forward 14 years later to Dallas, and those words have aged like fine wine. On Monday night, the 38-year-old Argentine magician once again showed the world why Rooney’s ten predictions came true. Messi scored a stunning goal to lead defending champions Argentina to a comfortable 2-0 win over Austria, sending his country through to the Round of 32.More importantly, these twin strikes put Messi at the pinnacle of football history. He scored an unprecedented 18 goals in a World Cup, breaking Miroslav Klose’s record of 16 goals to become the top scorer in the game’s history.As soon as the final whistle blew in Dallas, fans dug out Rooney’s old records from the archives. The tweet went viral again, garnering millions of new likes, shares, and comments from fans who are talking the same way.For more than a decade, Rooney has remained steadfast in his opinion on the perennial “Greatest of All Time” (GOAT) debate, placing the Argentine ahead of former Manchester United team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo. While Messi still dominates the biggest stage in 2026, football fans are reminding the world that Rooney called it first.
