Full name Date of birth Place of birth Height Playing position Current club Number 19962002 Years 20022004

2004 2003

Wayne Mark Rooney 24 October 1985 (age 23) Croxteth, Liverpool, England 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) Striker Second striker Club information Manchester United 10 Youth clubs Everton Senior clubs1 Club App (Gls)* Everton Manchester United National team2 England 067 (15) 141 (57) 048 (19)

Rooney is the first child of Thomas Wayne and Jeanette Marie Rooney (ne Morrey).[1][dead link] He was raised in Croxteth with younger brothers Graeme and John,[2][3] and all three attended De La Salle School. Wayne grew up supporting local club Everton F.C., and his childhood hero was Duncan Ferguson.[4] After excelling for Liverpool Schoolboys and Dynamo Brownwings, Everton signed Rooney on schoolboy terms at the age of ten.[5] 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."[6] Since he was underage 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 council estates. On 19 October 2002, five days before his seventeenth birthday, Rooney scored a matchwinning goal against reigning league champions Arsenal F.C.; in addition to ending Arsenal's thirty-match unbeaten run,[7] it made Rooney the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history, a record that has since been surpassed twice by James Milner and currently James Vaughan. He was named BBC Sports' 2002-03 Rooney made his United debut on 28 September 2004 in a 6-2 Champions League group stage win over Fenerbahe S.K., scoring a hat-trick along with an assist.[12] One year later, he was sent off for dissent in a goalless Champions League group draw with Villarreal CF in Spain on 14 September 2005, after he sarcastically applauded referee Kim Milton Nielsen when he was booked for a foul.[13] His first trophy with United came in the 2006 League Cup, and he was also named man of the match after scoring twice in United's 4-0 win over Wigan Athletic in the final. Rooney was sent off in an Amsterdam Tournament match against F.C. Porto on 4 August 2006 after hitting Porto defender Pepe with an elbow.[14] He was punished with a threematch ban by the FA, following their receipt of a 23-page report from referee Ruud Bossen that explained his decision.[15] 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.[16] During the first half of the 2006-07 season, Rooney ended a ten-game scoreless streak with a hat-trick against Bolton Wanderers F.C.,[17] 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 quarterfinal win over A.S. Roma and two more in a 3-2 semifinal first leg victory over A.C. Milan[18] brought Rooney's total goal amount to twenty-three in all competitions and tied him with teammate Cristiano Ronaldo for the team goalscoring lead. United announced during the postseason that Rooney had taken over the #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.[19]

Rooney being treated for his broken foot On 12 August 2007, Rooney fractured his left metatarsal in United's opening-day goalless draw against Reading F.C.[20] He had suffered the same injury to his right foot in 2004.[21] After being sidelined for six weeks, he returned for United's 1-0 CL 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 F.C. on 3 December, in which he played seventy minutes.[22][dead link] Rooney missed a total of ten games and finished the 2007-08 season with eighteen goals, as United clinched both the Premiership and the Champions League, in which they defeated league rivals Chelsea F.C. in the competition's first-ever all-English final.

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.[23] 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.[24] 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."[24] 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

International career

Rooney playing for England 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 stomping 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."[25] Elizondo confirmed the next day that Rooney was dismissed solely for the infraction on Carvalho.[26] Rooney was fined CHF5,000 for the incident.[27][dead link]