Wayne Rooney reveals unlikely bromance with Germany & Bayern Munich legend Bastian Schweinsteiger as he admits being surprised by midfielder at Man Utd

When Germany and Bayern Munich star Schweinsteiger swapped the Bundesliga for Premier League giants United in 2015, Rooney was expecting the midfielder to fit the German stereotype of an "efficient" player. Instead, the forward was pleasantly surprised to learn that his new team-mate was quite the "prankster".

In the latest episode of the 'Wayne Rooney Show', he said: "Thierry Henry made a comment. Bastian Schweinsteiger won't leave me alone. He keeps just following me everywhere. So the comment was that, it was like T-Bag (Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell) and his guy [from Prison Break] with him. Basty’s brilliant. He's so much fun and he's come out with his dad. His dad's a good character as well. I've said to him all the time, when he signed for Man United, I thought, we sign this really efficient German, he's gonna come in and, you know, really organised and that, and he comes in and he’s like the biggest joker prankster I've seen. And then with Bastian, even when he was at United, me and him end up on FaceTime to Thomas Muller. He was on FaceTime this morning, Thomas Muller, who is out in Vancouver at the minute. And I'm like, I think I've been kidded all these years that these Germans are very efficient. They’re just big pranksters! Even Bastian's dad, who, I think, he said was 72, but he was all great fun." 

The two players will go down as some of the best players of their generation. Rooney was one of England's best-ever forwards, and Schweinsteiger had a hugely successful career, both for Bayern but also in winning the 2014 World Cup with Germany. Despite having quite different backgrounds, these two showed that friendships can blossom from just about anywhere.

In another anecdote about spending time in South Korea with former United team-mate Ji-sung Park, Rooney said he and Schweinsteiger planned to go to the famous German festival, Oktoberfest, one day.

He added: "Ji-sung Park again took us out for some Korean food for lunch and to try on some Korean school uniforms, which was quite strange. It was cringy. And do you know what I think, just for Ji-sung Park, we've all done it. Because we love him that much. We all said, okay, we'll just do it. And we all knew how cringy and how bad it looked. I didn't put the trousers on it. I said I'll put the shirt and the jacket, and the tie on. It's been great. And we went to one of the famous towers here. And like you have in Paris, where you have the lock, where you write the message and make a wish? It was like one of them. And so me and Schweinsteiger done a message each on either side of the lock, so mine was, 'Basty, can you please take me to Oktoberfest?' He said, 'Yes, I will but you have to wear the outfit'. We’re gonna try and organise it."