Video: Yaya Toure surprisingly names Wayne Rooney in his current five best players list

Rooney has scored 233 goals in 450 games across all competitions for United

Manchester City and Manchester United may be crosstown rivals but that hasn’t stopped Yaya Toure from acknowledging one of his adversaries as one of the top five players in the world.

The Ivory Coast midfielder, in an interview for BT Sport, named his current best five footballers in the world in which he included Red Devils captain Wayne Rooney. The England international recently surpassed Sir Bobby Charlton as his nation’s all-time top goalscorer with 50 goals from 107 caps.

However, following a hamstring injury he picked up during training, Rooney missed out on the weekend Premier League clash against Liverpool and was sidelined in United’s Champions League encounter with PSV Eindhoven this week.

Since arriving at the Old Trafford in 2004 from Everton, the 29-year-old has scored 233 goals in 450 games across all competitions and easily has been one of the best players in the modern game.

And Toure, who has come up against the Englishman on several occasions over the last few seasons, highly regards him as one of the finest players of his generation alongside some of Europe’s best. Talking to ex- United defender Rio Ferdinand in a BT Sport interview, the City midfielder, when asked about his top 5 players in order, named Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Aguero, Gareth Bale and Rooney as his fifth choice.

Messi and Ronaldo are the obvious names that featured in his list as the duo have been dominating the game, head and shoulders above the rest for quite some time now. Both these players have been surpassing records and achieving milestones on a usual basis and have attained supernatural feats for their respective clubs.

City team-mate Aguero is widely recognised as one of the best strikers on the planet and regardless of playing alongside him, the Argentine arguably is a deserving candidate on that list.

The best five players in the world? @YayaToure reveals his selection to @rioferdy5. #UCL #MCFC http://t.co/thUrE2oNCY

— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) September 15, 2015