Position: StrikerNationality: English
Nickname: Rooney
Chant: We wouldnt want Michael Owen, cos we've got Wayne Rooney!
Supported As Youngster: Everton
World class centre forward who started his career at Everton and left much to the disappointment of many Everton fans.
Did You Know? Rooney used to cycle to training with Everton on his BMX bike!
Aged 10, Rooney joined the youth team of Everton, for whom he made his professional debut in 2002. He spent two seasons at the Merseyside club, before moving to Manchester United for £25.6 million in the 2004 summer transfer window.
Since then, United have won the Premier League three times, the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League and two League Cups with Rooney in the team. He has also been awarded the PFA Players' Player of the Year and the FWA Footballer of the Year in 2009–10.
Rooney made his senior international debut in 2003 and, at UEFA Euro 2004, he briefly became the competition's youngest goalscorer. He is frequently selected for the England squad and also featured at the 2006 FIFA World Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. As of February 2010, he has won 69 international caps and scored 26 goals.
| Early Life |
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Rooney was born in Croxteth, Liverpool to Thomas Wayne and Jeanette Marie Rooney (née Morrey).
He is of Irish descent and was brought up Catholic in Croxteth with younger brothers Graeme and John; all three attended De La Salle School. He grew up supporting his local club Everton;
His childhood hero was Duncan Ferguson. Rooney later said in a interview “I was always an Everton fan and Duncan Ferguson was a big hero of mine. I even wrote to him when he was in jail.
One day, I got a letter back from him. Then a few years later, I was playing alongside him. Duncan and Alan Stubbs were a big help to me."
He has also said “I loved Duncan Ferguson, just because of the passion he showed for playing football. I’m sure he was a handful to play against."
“I was lucky enough to play with him as well and he was probably the one I wanted to go and watch all the time. "
| Everton |
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Rooney began playing for Liverpool Schoolboys and at the age of 10 was signed on schoolboy terms by Everton.After scoring in an FA Youth Cup match, he revealed a T-shirt under his jersey that read, "Once a Blue, always a Blue."
Since he was under 17 at the time and therefore ineligible for a professional contract, he was playing for £80 a week and living with his family on one of the country's most deprived council estates.
On 19 October 2002, five days before his 17th birthday, Rooney scored a match-winning goal against reigning league champions Arsenal; in addition to ending Arsenal's 30-match unbeaten run, it made Rooney the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history, a record that has since been surpassed twice; first by James Milner and then by James Vaughan. He was named BBC Sports' 2002 Young Personality of the Year.
At the end of the 2003–04 season, citing Everton's inability to challenge for European competition (they had finished seventh the previous season and only just missed out on a UEFA Cup place, but finished in 17th place in 2003–04, narrowly avoiding relegation), Rooney requested a transfer that Everton refused to oblige unless the transfer fee was in excess of £50 million.
| Leaving For Man United! |
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Rooney's agent snubbed a three-year, £12,000-a-week contract offer from Everton in August 2004, leaving Manchester United and Newcastle United to compete for his signature.
The Times reported that Newcastle were close to signing Rooney for £18.5 million, as confirmed by Rooney's agent, but Manchester United ultimately won the bidding war and Rooney signed at the end of the month after a £25.6 million deal with Everton was reached.
It was the highest fee ever paid for a player under 20 years old; Rooney was still only 18 when he left Everton.
| Paul Stretford controversy |
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In July 2002, while Rooney was with Everton, agent Paul Stretford encouraged Rooney and his parents to enter the player into an eight-year contract with Proactive Sports Management.
However, Rooney was already with another representation firm at the time, while Stretford's transaction went unreported to the FA, and he was thus charged with improper conduct.
Stretford alleged in his October 2004 trial that he had secretly recorded boxing promoter John Hyland (an associate of Rooney's first agent) and two other men threatening and attempting to blackmail him for an undisclosed percentage of Rooney's earnings.
Stretford's case collapsed due to evidence that conflicted with his insistence that he had not signed Rooney, and on 9 July 2008, he was found guilty of "making of false and/or misleading witness statements to police, and giving false and/or misleading testimony."
In addition, the contract to which Stretford had signed Rooney was two years longer than the limit allowed by the FA. Stretford was fined £300,000 and banned from working as a football agent for eighteen months, a verdict he promptly appealed.
Stretford left Proactive in 2008 and took Rooney with him. Proactive later sued Rooney, claiming £4.3 million in withheld commissions. In July 2010, Proactive was awarded only £90,000 as restitution.
| David Moyes |
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On 1 September 2006, Everton manager David Moyes sued Rooney for libel after the tabloid newspaper The Daily Mail published excerpts from Rooney's 2006 autobiography that accused the manager of leaking Rooney's reasons for leaving the club to the press.
The case was settled out of court for £500,000 on 3 June 2008, and Rooney apologized to Moyes for "false claims" he had made in the book regarding the matter.
Rooney later told a national newspaper “I’ve said a few bad things about him in the past. But when I look back, I see what he did for me. He helped make me the player I am today."
| I Still Love Everton? |
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Rooney has taunted his old club by kissing his United badge when the clubs meet but despite that he insists he’s desperate for the Blues to be successful and has even bought his three-month old son Kai an Everton kit.
“I love Everton, I grew up supporting them and I want them to win,” he added.
“Obviously in football terms I felt I had to move on but I still want them to win and that’s not going to change. All my family are Everton fans and my son has an Everton kit. The club is still a big part of my life.
“I went to the FA Cup final last season. I was a bit nervous in case anything happened but the Everton fans were brilliant.
“When Louis Saha scored it was a great feeling. They couldn’t hold on but I still believe Everton are capable of winning trophies.
“I’m back in Liverpool a lot to see my family and most Evertonians are okay with me. Most say they understand why I left. When the fans who used to sing your name sing mad things about you that’s hard to take at first.
“But I understand it. I remember I wasn’t best pleased when Franny Jeffers left. It’s part of football and I probably over-reacted a few times when I was younger. These days I’m trying to keep calm.”
