Wayne Rooney

Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team.

Rooney made his senior international debut in 2003 becoming the youngest player to represent England (a record later broken by Theo Walcott). He is England's youngest ever goalscorer. He played at UEFA Euro 2004 and scored four goals, briefly becoming the competition's youngest goalscorer. Rooney featured at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups and is widely regarded as his country's best player. He has won the England Player of the Year award twice, in 2008 and 2009. As of June 2012, he has won 74 international caps and scored 28 goals. Along with David Beckham, Rooney is the most red carded player for England, having been sent off twice.

Aged nine, 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. The same year, Rooney acquired the nickname "Wazza". Since then, with Rooney in the team, United have won the Premier League four times, the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League and two League Cups. He also holds two runner-up medals from both the Premier League and the Champions League. In April of the 2011–12 season Rooney scored his 180th goal, making him United's fourth highest goal-scorer of all time.

In 2009–10, Rooney was awarded the PFA Players' Player of the Year and the FWA Footballer of the Year. He came fifth in the vote for the 2011 FIFA Baloon d'Or and was named in the FIFPro World 11 for 2011. Rooney has won the 'Goal of the Season' award by the BBC's Match of the Day poll on three occasions, with his bicycle kick against rivals Manchester City winning the 'Premier League Goal of the 20 Seasons' award. Rooney is the third highest-paid footballer in the world after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, with an annual income of €20.7m (£18m) including sponsorship deals

Early life

Rooney was born in Croxteth, Liverpool to Thomas Wayne and Jeanette Marie (née Morrey) Rooney. He is of Irish descent and was brought up as a Roman Catholic with younger brothers Graham and John; all three attended Our Lady and St Swithin's primary school and the De La Salle Humanities College. He grew up supporting his local club Everton.

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." Elizondo confirmed the next day that Rooney was dismissed solely for the infraction on Carvalho.

Rooney was fined CHF5,000 for the incident.

UEFA Euro 2012

The Euro 2012 qualifications went well for England as they qualified in first place of their group, winning five and drawing three games out of eight. Rooney scored three goals, one against Switzerland and two against Bulgaria. Nevertheless, the qualifications will be remembered for something else, Rooney's 74th minute tackle on Miodrag Džudović in the last group stage game against Montenegro (2-2) which saw him get sent off. At first, it was known that Rooney would miss at least one mach in the opening round of the first phase at UEFA Euro 2012. After the game with Montenegro, Rooney sent a personal letter to UEFA in which he apologised and expressed regret for the tackle on Džudović which earned him the red card.

Despite the letter, UEFA punished Rooney with a three game ban, meaning that he couldn't play in any of the group stagematches. After UEFA's announcement, Džudović stated that he believed the sentence for Rooney was too severe and that he would defend him if needed. He later asked the UEFA to pardon Rooney, who kicked out at him in the qualification match. The FA then decided they would appeal to UEFA against the ban. On 8 December 2011, after The FA had appealed the ban, UEFA reduced the sentence to two matches. This means that Rooney will now miss the matches against France and Sweden. He will be able to play in the final match of the group stage against Ukraine on 19 June 2012 and all other matches that England participate in at the tournament should they progress.

Career statistics

Club

Statistics accurate as of match played 13 May 2012

International

Statistics accurate as of match played 2 June 2012

Honours

Club

MANCHESTER UNITED

• Premier League (4): 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11
• Football League Cup (2): 2005–06, 2009–10
• FA Community Shield (3): 2007, 2010, 2011
• UEFA Champions League (1): 2007–08
• FIFA Club World Cup (1): 2008

Individual

• PFA Players' Player of the Year (1): 2009–10
• PFA Young Player of the Year (2): 2004–05, 2005–06
• PFA Fans' Player of the Year (2): 2005–06, 2009–10
• PFA Premier League Team of the Year (3): 2005–06, 2009–10, 2011–12
• FWA Footballer of the Year (1): 2009–10
• Goal of the Season (3): 2004–05, 2006–07, 2010–11
• Goal of the Month (6): October 2003, January 2005, April 2005, January 2007, March 2007, February 2011
• Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year (2): 2005–06, 2009–10
• BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year (1): 2002
• Bravo Award (1): 2003
• UEFA Euro 2004 Team of the Tournament
• FIFPro World Young Player of the Year (1): 2004–05
• Premier League Player of the Month (5): February 2005, December 2005, March 2006, October 2007, January 2010
• Barclays Player of the Year (1): 2009–10
• Premier League 20 Seasons Awards (1992–93 to 2011–12):
  • Best Goal (vs. Manchester City, 12 February 2011)
• FIFA Club World Cup Golden Ball (1): 2008
• England Player of the Year (2): 2008, 2009
• Golden Boot Landmark Award 20 (1): 2009–10
• FIFA/FIFPro World XI (1): 2011