Carlos Tevez proclaimed that Wayne Rooney is his favourite teammate ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

The Argentine who joined cross-town rivals, Manchester City from United in the summer made these claims according to reports from News of the World.

He said: "I've had the honour of playing with some great players. At United I had Cristiano [Ronaldo] in my team and, obviously, I have [Lionel] Messi in the national team,

"But the one I like the most is Wayne Rooney. He is very complete, plus we share the same humble origins, though what he experienced growing up in Liverpool was a bit more bearable than mine in Fuerte Apache!

"I have great relationships with other players, too. One day when playing for West Ham, Rooney asked for my shirt,

"And when I was left on the bench at West Ham against Arsenal, Thierry Henry bumped into me afterwards and said 'Hey, what are you doing here? Come and play with us. It's incredible you can't get a game in this team."

He went on to explain his situation at City under Mark Hughes who has not given Tevez a guaranteed berth in the starting eleven on many occassions this season.

He continued, "Fighting for my place doesn't bother me. I'm used to it. I will never let my head drop. The harder the challenge, the more effort I put in to winning a place.

"I won a tournament with Boca, I was a South American champion, I've won titles in the Premier League and have been a European and world champion at club level. I was even an Olympic champion at Athens in 2004.

"What's left? Well, winning the World Cup with Argentina!"