F
ew players have
announced their arrival
in English football quite
as explosively as a
16-year-old superstar
did in 2002.
“Remember the
name,” trilled a delighted Clive Tyldsley.
“Wayne Rooney!”
The Everton boy-wonder had just
opened his Premier League account
with a stunning winner against league
champions Arsenal, and was about to
take the football world by storm.
His retirement, in contrast, could
hardly have been more understated.
OnJanuary15, Rooney was confirmed
as Derby County’s new manager after
a period as player-caretaker-manager,
thus ending his playing days. His final
game, a 3-0 defeat to Middlesbrough
that had left the side rooted to the
bottom of the Championship, had
come almost two months earlier.
“Normally this happens at the end of
a season and as a player you’d have
time to reflect,” he said during his first
press conference as boss. “My future, I
feel, is in management. I’ve had a great
career; I’ve enjoyed every minute.
“Hopefully now I can start to write
some history and make a successful
managerial career.”
In his19-year career, Rooney scored
313 goals for Everton, Manchester
United, D.C. United and Derby, in the
process becoming the Red Devils’
record scorer.
If one of those strikes were to sum
him up as a player, the stunning 25-yard
volley against Newcastle at Old Trafford
in 2005 does the best job. The
build-up features a furious Rooney
arguing with the referee, a typically
foul-mouthed tirade streaming from his
mouth. He seems barely aware of theball as it is hooked up field. Then, as it
is headed into his path, he puts his foot
through it as if it is the referee’s head.
It is a ten-second spell that perfectly
encapsulates peak-Rooney: fierce
temperament, bullish power, and
impeccable technique. At his best he
was a force of nature, always on the
edge, capable of changing a match at
any moment; either with a moment of
genius or a loss of temper.
Often, that short temper would
define his international career. His first
World Cup was ended by a red card for
a stamp on Portugal’s Ricardo Carvalho;
his second marked by an on-pitch rant
against England fans booing the team
after a dreadful 0-0 draw with Algeria.
He also missed the first two matches
of Euro 2012 having been sent off in
the final qualifying match.
Injuries played their part too. At his
first, and best, major tournament, Euro
2004, he looked set to fire England to
the final until an injury against Portugal
in the quarter-finals. Two years later, a
broken metatarsal meant he was short
of his best in Germany, too.
Arguably the greatest talent of the
so-called “Golden Generation”,
Rooney’s greatest criticism was his
failure to lead England to a trophy, oreven a semi-final. The two best scoring
seasons of his career (2009-10 and
2011-12, when he scored 34 goals in
all competitions), both ended with
major tournaments, yet he failed to
deliver at either of them. For many, he
failed to replicate his club form on the
international stage when it mostmattered, even if he did win120 caps
and break the all-time goal record.
Incidentally, that is not a record that
he expects to last: “Harry Kane will
break it in a couple of years,” he told
Amazon Prime last year. “I want him to
break it, I think it’ll be great. I’m looking
forward to presenting him with the
trophy for doing it, just like Bobby
Charlton did for me.”
The suggestion that Rooney could
have achieved more is given further
mileage by comparisons to his former
team-mate, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Born just eight months apart, the
pair - alongside Carlos Tevez - formed
one of the most formidable attacks in
Premier League history, winning three
titles in a row and the 2008 Champions
League, before losing to Barcelona in
the final a year later. In the five years
they played together, Rooney and
Ronaldo scored 215 goals between
them, each averaging around 0.4 per
game. Yet the Portuguese forward’s
career scaled even greater heights after
he left for Real Madrid.
“Sometimes you get this feeling that
people think Rooney never achieved
what he should have, or he never did
what Ronaldo did. But Ronaldo’s a
freak!” saidJamie Carragher onMonday
Night Football. “Wayne Rooney’s
career is unbelievable,” the former
Liverpool defender added. “The only
thing he didn’t do was win somethingLethal attack...
Rooney played
with Ronaldo
between 2004
and 2009Record breaker...
Bobby Charlton
presented Rooney
with a Golden Boot
to honour his England
goal record“Hopefully now I can start to write
some history and make a successful
managerial career”Wayne Rooney
England and Manchester United legend hangs up his boots
Headliners
New chapter...
Rooney arrived at
Derby in August 2019