Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English footballer who currently plays as a striker for EnglishPremier League club Manchester United and the England national team.
Rooney began his career with Everton, joining their youth team at age ten and rising through the ranks. He made his professional debut in 2002 and his first goal made him the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history at the time. He quickly became part of Everton's first team, spending two seasons at the Merseyside club. Before the start of the 2004–05 season he moved to Manchester United for £25.6 million and became a key member of the first team. Since then, he has won the Premier League three times, the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League and also the League Cup.
Rooney made his England debut in 2003 and at Euro 2004 he briefly became the competition's youngest goalscorer. He is frequently selected for the England squad and also featured in the 2006 World Cup.
Early life
Born on 24 October 1985 in Croxteth, Liverpool, Merseyside, Rooney is the first child of parents of Irish descent [1]Thomas Wayne and Jeanette Marie Rooney (née Morrey).[2] He was raised in Croxteth with younger brothers Graeme and John,[3][4] and all three attended De La Salle School. Wayne grew up supporting local club Everton, and his childhood hero was Duncan Ferguson.[5]
Club career
Everton
After excelling for Liverpool Schoolboys, Rooney was signed on schoolboy terms by Everton at the age of ten.[6] He was part of the youth squad, and after scoring in an FA Youth Cup match, he revealed a T-shirt under his jersey that read, "Once a Blue, always a Blue."[7] 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 thirty-match unbeaten run,[8] it made Rooney the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history, a record that has since been surpassed twice; first byJames Milner and then by James Vaughan. He was named BBC Sports' 2002 Young Personality of the Year. He played 33 Premier League games that season and scored six goals.
At the end of the 2003-04 season, Rooney, 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 in 2003-04 had narrowly avoided relegation and finished 17th), requested a transfer that Everton refused to oblige if the transfer fee was less than £50 million. A three-year, £12,000-a-week contract offer from the club was snubbed by Rooney's agent 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.[9] At the time of the signing, Everton were close to administration and needed money to stay afloat. Fourteen days after Rooney's departure, Everton paid off a £10m loan from Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander which had been secured in February earlier that year to stave off the administrators.
It was the highest fee ever paid for a player aged under 20. Rooney was still only 18 years old when he left Everton.[10]
In his final season at Everton, he scored eight goals in 34 Premier League games. [11]
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 coach of leaking Rooney's reasons for leaving the club to the press.[12] 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.
Manchester United
Since 2004
Rooney made his United debut on 28 September 2004 in a 6-2 Champions League group stage win over Fenerbahçe, scoring a hat-trick along with an assist.[14] However, his first season at Old Trafford ended trophyless as United could only manage a third place finish in the league (having been champions or runners-up on all but two previous occasions since 1992) and failed to progress to the last eight of the UEFA Champions League. United had more success in the cup competitions, but were edged out of the League Cup in the semi finals by a Chelsea side who also won the Premier League title that season, and a goalless draw with Arsenal in the FA Cup final was followed by a penalty shoot-out defeat. However, Rooney was United's top league scorer that season with 11 goals, and was credited with the PFA Young Player of the Year award. [15]
In September 2005, Rooney was sent off in a UEFA Champions League clash with Villarreal of Spain (which ended in a goalless draw) for sarcastically clapping the referee who had booked him for an unintentional foul on an opponent.[16] His first trophy with United came in the 2006 2006 League Cup, and he was also named man of the match after scoring twice in United's 4-0 win overWigan Athletic in the final. In the Premier League, however, an erratic start to the season left title glory looking unlikely for United and their title hopes were ended in late April when they lost 3-0 at home to champions Chelsea and had to settle for second place. Rooney's goalscoring further improved in the 2005-06 season, as he managed 16 goals in 36 Premier League games.
Rooney was sent off in an Amsterdam Tournament match against Porto on 4 August 2006 after hitting Porto defender Pepe with an elbow.[17] He was punished with a three-match ban by the FA, following their receipt of a 23-page report from referee Ruud Bossen that explained his decision.[18] Rooney wrote a letter of protest to the FA, citing the lack of punishment handed down to other players who were sent off in friendlies. He also threatened to withdraw the FA's permission to use his image rights if they did not revoke the ban, but the FA had no power to make such a decision.[19]
During the first half of the 2006–07 season, Rooney ended a ten-game scoreless streak with a hat-trick against Bolton Wanderers,[20]and he signed a two-year contract extension the next month that tied him to United until 2012. By the end of April, a combination of two goals in an 8-3 aggregate quarter-final win over Roma and two more in a 3-2 semi-final first leg victory over AC Milan[21] brought Rooney's total goal amount to 23 in all competitions and tied him with teammate Cristiano Ronaldo for the team goalscoring lead. By the end of that season, he had scored 14 league goals.[22]
Rooney collected his first Premier League title winner's medal at the end of the 2006-07 season, but has yet to pick up an FA Cupwinner's medal; he had to settle for a runners-up medal in the 2007 FA Cup Final.
United announced during the post-season that Rooney had taken over the number 10 jersey that was vacated by Ruud van Nistelrooy, who had left for Real Madrid a year earlier. He was presented with the shirt at a press conference on 28 June 2007 by former United striker Denis Law, who had also worn the number during his tenure with the club in the 1960s and early 1970s.[23]
On 12 August 2007, Rooney fractured his left metatarsal in United's opening-day goalless draw againstReading;[24] he had suffered the same injury to his right foot in 2004.[25] After being sidelined for six weeks, he returned for United's 1-0 Champions League group stage win over Roma on 2 October, scoring the match's only goal. However, barely a month into his return, Rooney injured his ankle during a training session on 9 November, and missed an additional two weeks. His first match back was against Fulham on 3 December, in which he played 70 minutes.[26][dead link] Rooney missed a total of ten games and finished the 2007-08 season with 18 goals (12 of them in the league), as United clinched both the Premier League and the Champions League, in which they defeated league rivals Chelsea in the competition's first-ever all-English final.
On 4 October 2008 in a away win over Blackburn Rovers, Rooney became the youngest player in league history to make 200 appearances.[27] On 14 January after scoring what turned out to be the only goal 54 seconds into the 1-0 win over Wigan Athletic, Rooney limped off with a hamstring ailment in the eighth minute. His replacement, Carlos Tévez, was injured himself shortly after entering the game, but stayed on.[28] Rooney was out for three weeks, missing one match apiece in the League Cup and FA Cup, along with four Premier League matches.[29]. On 25 April 2009, Rooney scored his final league goals of the season in one of the games of the season, United scored 5 goals in an emphatic second half display to come from 2-0 down winning the game 5-2. Rooney grabbed two goals, set up two and provided the assist that led to the penalty for United's first goal.[30] Rooney ended the season with 20 goals in all competitions, behind Ronaldo as leading United scorer for the season. Once again, he managed 12 goals in the league.
Rooney's start to the new campaign got off to great scoring ways, he scored in the 90th minute of the 2009 Community Shield, however United lost the game to Chelsea on penalties. He then scored the only goal of the opening game of the 2009-10 season against Birmingham City, thus taking his overall United tally to 99.[31]He failed to score in the next game, a historic 1-0 defeat to the hands of newly-promoted Burnley at Turf Moor. On 22 August 2009, he became the 20th Manchester United player to have scored over 100 goals for the club, finding the net twice in a 5-0 away win at Wigan Athletic, the game which saw Michael Owen notch his first goal for United.[32].
On 29 August 2009, United played Arsenal at Old Trafford. Rooney scored the equaliser from the penalty spot after Andrei Arshavin had put the Gunners ahead. The game finished 2-1 to Manchester United after Abou Diaby scored an own goal.[33] Five days later Rooney commented on his penalty against Arsenal: "Everyone who watches me play knows I am an honest player, I play the game as honestly as I can. If the referee gives a penalty there is nothing you can do."[34] On 28 November 2009, Rooney scored his first hat-trick for three years in a 4-1 away victory against Portsmouth, with two of them being penalties.[35]
On 27 December 2009, he was awarded Man of the Match against Hull. He was involved in all the goals scored in the game, hitting the opener and then giving away the ball for Hull's equalizing penalty. He then forced Andy Dawson into conceding an own goal and then set up Dimitar Berbatov for United's third goal which gave them a 3-1 victory.[36] On 30 January 2009, three days on from their victory over Hull, he grabbed another goal in United's 5-0 thrashing of Wigan in their final game of the century.[37] On 23 January 2010, Rooney scored all four goals in Manchester United's 4–0 win over Hull City; three of the goals came in the last 10 minutes of the match. This was the first time in his career that he bagged four in one match.[38] On 27 January 2010, he continued his great scoring run by heading the winner in the second minute of stoppage time against derby rivals Manchester City. This gave United a 4-3 aggregate win, taking them into the final, it was his first League Cup goal since netting two in the 2006 final.[39] On 31 January 2010, Rooney scored his 100th Premier League goal in a 3-1 win over Arsenal for the first time in the league at the Emirates, notably his first Premier League goal also came against Arsenal.[40]
International career
Rooney became the youngest player to play for England when he earned his first cap in a friendly against Australia on 12 February 2003 at seventeen, the same age in which he also became the youngest player to score an England goal. Arsenal youngster Theo Walcott broke Rooney's appearance record by 36 days in June 2006.
His first tournament action was at Euro 2004, in which he became the youngest scorer in competition history on 17 June 2004, when he scored twice against Switzerland; however, this record was topped by Swiss midfielder Johan Vonlanthen four days later. Rooney suffered an injury in the quarterfinal match against Portugal as England were eliminated on penalties.
Following a foot injury in an April 2006 Premier League match, Rooney faced a race to fitness for the 2006 World Cup. England attempted to hasten his recovery with the use of an oxygen tent, which allowed Rooney to enter a group match against Trinidad and Tobago and start the next match against Sweden. However, he never got back into game shape and went scoreless as England bowed out in the quarterfinals, again on penalty kicks.
Rooney was red-carded in the 62nd minute of the quarterfinal for stamping on Portugal defender Ricardo Carvalho as both attempted to gain possession of the ball, an incident that occurred right in front of referee Horacio Elizondo. Rooney's United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo openly protested his actions, and was in turn shoved by Rooney. Elizondo sent Rooney off, after which Ronaldo was seen winking at the Portugal bench. Rooney denied intentionally targeting Carvalho in a statement on 3 July, adding, "I bear no ill feeling to Cristiano but am disappointed that he chose to get involved. I suppose I do, though, have to remember that on that particular occasion we were not teammates."[41] Elizondo confirmed the next day that Rooney was dismissed solely for the infraction on Carvalho.[42] Rooney was fined CHF5,000 for the incident.[43]
Personal life
Family
Rooney met his wife, Coleen Rooney (née McLoughlin), while both were in their final year of secondary school. They married on 12 June 2008 after six years of dating, during which Rooney admitted to soliciting prostitution in Liverpool in 2004. '"I was young and stupid. It was at a time when I was very young and immature and before I had settled down with Coleen."[44] He has a tattoo of the words "Just Enough Education To Perform," the title of an album by his favorite band, theStereophonics; Coleen arranged for the group to play at their wedding reception.[45] The wedding ran into some controversy with the Catholic Church. The couple, held a religious ceremony at La Cervara, a converted monastery near Genoa, despite being warned by the local bishop's office against the plan. The bishop's office told the Rooneys that La Cervara is deconsecrated and not suitable for a wedding. It suggested a different church, five miles away. Nevertheless, the couple ignored the advice and Father Edward Quinn, their local priest from Croxteth, presided over a ceremony in which rings were exchanged.[46]
In April 2006, he was awarded £100,000 in libel damages from tabloids The Sun and News of the World, who had claimed that he had assaulted Coleen in a nightclub. Rooney donated the money to charity.[47]
The Rooneys reside in a £4.25 million mansion in the village of Prestbury, Cheshire,[48][dead link] which was built by a company owned by Dawn Ward, the wife of former Sheffield United striker Ashley Ward.[49] He also owns property in Port Charlotte, Florida.[50] While Rooney was house hunting in Cheshire after signing with Manchester United, he spotted a pub sign that read "Admiral Rodney," which he misread as "Admiral Rooney." He nonetheless considered it a positive omen for his future home.[51] Rooney owns a French mastiff dog, which was reportedly bought for £1,250.[52]
Rooney's wife Coleen announced on 7 April 2009 that the couple were expecting their first baby, due in October 2009.[53] Coleen gave birth to their son, Kai Wayne Rooney, on 2 November 2009.[54]
Commercial interests
Rooney has endorsement deals with Nike,[55] Nokia,[56] Ford, Asda,[57] and Coca-Cola.[58] He has appeared on five straight UK-version covers of Electronic Arts'FIFA series from FIFA 06 (2005) to FIFA 10 (2009).[59]
On 9 March 2006, Rooney signed the largest sports book deal in publishing history with HarperCollins,[60] who granted him a £5 million advance plus royalties for a minimum of five books to be published over a twelve-year period. The first, My Story So Far, an autobiography ghostwritten by Hunter Davies, was published after the World Cup. The second publication, The Official Wayne Rooney Annual, was aimed at the teenage market and edited by football journalist Chris Hunt.
In July 2006, Rooney's lawyers went to the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organisation to gain ownership of the Internet domain names waynerooney.comand waynerooney.co.uk, both of which Welsh actor Huw Marshall registered in 2002.[61] Three months later, the WIPO awarded Rooney the rights towaynerooney.com.[62]
Paul Stretford controversy
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.[63] 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.[64]
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."[64] 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.[64]
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