Wayne Rooney believes that Robin van Persie is the scorer of the best goal in Premier League history.
Wayne Rooney has never been shy about naming the moments that defined his Manchester United career, but when the conversation turns to Robin van Persie and that title clincher against Aston Villa, his tone shifts into something closer to pure admiration.
Even after years of highlights, trophies, and iconic goals of his own, Rooney insists one moment still sits above the rest in Premier League history: Van Persie second strike on 22 April 2013, finished after what Rooney calls a perfect pass.
In Rooney memory, it is not just a great goal, it is a complete football action, built from planning, execution, and the significance of the day. United only needed a result to secure the league title, yet the performance turned into a statement. Van Persie scored a hat trick, Old Trafford exploded, and the season ended in the most emphatic way possible: a 3 to 0 win that confirmed United as champions. For Rooney, the broader context matters because it adds weight to the moment. It was not a random piece of magic in a meaningless game. It was the decisive match, under pressure, in front of a crowd expecting celebration, and it delivered.
What makes Rooney description especially telling is how strongly he frames the goal as something rehearsed rather than accidental. He says the move was discussed in advance and worked on in training days before the match. That detail reveals a side of elite football that fans sometimes forget: the best moments are not always improvised, they are often engineered through repetition, understanding, and trust between players. Rooney presents it almost like a private agreement between him and Van Persie, a shared pattern waiting for the right moment to appear in a real match.
At the time, Rooney was operating slightly deeper, with more responsibility to link play and deliver from midfield areas. From that position he could see the game opening in front of him, and he claims he gave Van Persie a simple instruction before the match. The message was clear: if Rooney had the ball and a fraction of space, Van Persie had to start the run immediately. Rooney would do the rest. That kind of instruction only works when both players read the same cues, and Rooney implies they did. Van Persie trusted the pass would come. Rooney trusted the movement would be decisive.
Then came the moment. Rooney got the ball, had time, and executed what he considers the best pass he ever produced. He describes it as perfectly weighted, perfectly placed, and perfectly timed, the kind of ball a forward can attack without breaking stride. In Rooney telling, that is the ultimate mark of a great assist: the runner does not need to adjust. No stutter, no hesitation, no slowing down to control. Everything flows at full speed, and that is exactly what happened.
Of course, Rooney also makes a point of praising Van Persie for the finish. A pass can be world class, but the move still requires the forward to deliver under pressure, and Rooney calls the technique phenomenal. Van Persie strike, as he remembers it, had that clean, effortless quality that separates a good finish from an iconic one. It was decisive, elegant, and instantly memorable, the type of goal that gets replayed endlessly because it looks almost too smooth to be real.
There is also an extra layer of meaning in Rooney words when he refers to Van Persie as the current Feyenoord coach. It underlines how football careers evolve, but certain moments remain frozen in time. Van Persie is no longer the forward sprinting onto passes at Old Trafford, and Rooney is no longer the player delivering them, yet this sequence still feels alive to him. It is the kind of shared memory that defines a team at its peak and becomes part of the club mythology.
By the end of the story, Rooney ties everything together with the simplest summary possible: the goal, the hat trick, the title, the timing, the preparation, the perfection of both assist and finish. In his view, all of it aligned in a way that rarely happens, even for the best teams. That is why he labels it the greatest Premier League goal ever. Not only because it looked beautiful, but because it represented a full package: planning turned into execution, execution turned into a moment of brilliance, and that brilliance sealed the biggest prize.
For United supporters, it is a reminder of how devastating that partnership could be. For neutral fans, it is a fascinating claim, especially coming from a player who scored and assisted countless historic goals himself. But Rooney message is clear: if he had to pick one goal that captures the best of Premier League football, he points to that second Van Persie strike against Aston Villa, and he does so with the certainty of someone who can still see the entire move in his head, frame by frame.
Updated: 11:22, 6 Feb 2026
