well to be completely fair, in that rooney comment you quoted he also said: "breaking caps and goals records mean nothing unless they come with trophies"
he also famously said that ter stegen was a better passer of the ball than him...

let's be clear here, i DO think that messi genuinely considers rooney to be a great player. but i wouldn't take his praise too literal, it IS kind of a polite official statement and if you dig a little deeper you can find lots of similar praises by really outstanding players for not quite so outstanding players... it's part of the business really...