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By NATHAN SALT Published: 03: 46 AEDT, 26 February 2025 | Updated: 03: 46 AEDT, 26 February 2025 1 View comments Axel Tuanzebe has raised eyebrows after choosing to overlook Wayne Rooney when asked to pick out his best ever Manchester United team-mate. Tuanzebe emerged through United's youth academy before going on to make his debut for the club in 2017. He returns to the club this week in the colours of Ipswich Town with both sides set to play out a crucial match at the bottom of the league at Old Trafford. Tuanzebe, who went on to make 37 appearances in United's first team, was exposed to some of the game's biggest stars during his breakthrough into senior football but it is not Rooney who is No 1 in his eyes. Rooney remains United's all-time record goalscorer and is one of the finest strikers to have ever pulled on a United shirt. But speaking to The Overlap, Tuanzebe picked out a different superstar as his greatest team-mate during his time in Manchester. Axel Tuanzebe (left) has overlooked Wayne Rooney (right) as his best Man United team-mate Tuanzebe, who will return to United this week with Ipswich, spoke about it with The Overlap 'Bastian Schweinsteiger, ' Tuanzebe declared. 'He was, I think, like 34, 35 at the time, I could not get anywhere near him. 'I'm 19 at this point so I've got legs, I've got legs for days. I couldn't. .. He was three, four, five steps ahead of me. 'He knew how to control the ball and make me off balance, so I'm running full pelt, boom, he's taken this. 'And in the box, incredible in the box, I've never seen a player. .. He had an ability to slow down time. ' Schweinsteiger left United in 2017 for MLS after being frozen out by Jose Mourinho. But to Tuanzebe, the World Cup-winning German remains, in his mind, the best of the best that he worked with at United. 'Unbelievable, couldn't get anywhere near him, ' he added. The German midfield enjoyed an illustrious career which saw him win the World Cup in 2014, as well as add eight Bundesliga titles and a Champions League with Bayern Munich. After 17 years in Bavaria, he was signed by United in 2015, a year after winning the World Cup. Instead of Rooney (left), Tuanzebe chose Bastian Schweinsteiger (right) as the best team-mate He made 35 appearances in his first season in England but a season later he played just four times as Mourinho moved on from him, something he later spoke about with regret. It got so bad for Schweinsteiger he was banned from the first team dressing room and eventually packed up his things to join Chicago Fire in the US. Last year Schweinsteiger went on record with Gary Neville to explain the sour nature of his Manchester United exit, much of which left fans stunned. 'It was 2016 and I was with the German national team, we went far in the competition [Euros] reaching the semi-finals, so I stepped in a little later [at United] and the team were in the US for a pre-season tour, ' he explained. 'When I arrived on the first day, I trained with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and thought it was great, a player who has the vision and is amazing to play with. 'The next day, on my birthday, when I walked into Carrington, John Murtough [former United football director] was there and said that I wasn't allowed to walk into the dressing room, the coach had said so. No warning, nothing. 'I don't know [why he told me]. Someone could have told me there [on my first day of training] or explained it to me in a normal way, but okay, I went to the youth dressing room and trained with the Under-16s. ' Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group