Emotions run high at Everton
Roo reveals 13-year nighttime secret at United on return home
LONDON: Wayne Rooney (pic) no longer has to hide his nighttime secret.
Although the striker left Everton in 2004 in pursuit of glory with Manchester United, the affection for his boyhood club never truly diminished – even while winning every major honour in European football with United and becoming the all-time leading scorer for English football’s biggest club.
A reunion with Everton was mooted for years and it finally came on Sunday. The 31-year-old Rooney completed an emotional return across northwest England by signing a two-year contract at Goodison Park.
“I’ve kept it quiet for the last 13 years,” Rooney said, “but I’ve actually been wearing Everton pyjamas at home with my kids. I had to keep that a bit quiet.
“It’s a great feeling to be back. I’m excited, I cannot wait to meet the lads, get on the training pitch and then get on the pitch to play. I’m ecstatic.”
Rooney always maintained that Everton were the only other Premier League club he could contemplate playing for after United.
Everton, though, are not welcoming back a player as energetic and dangerous in front of goal as the precocious teenager who left in 2004. In the twilight of his career, Rooney is only available after dropping out of both the United and England teams he captained. Rooney’s hunger for the game, however, has never diminished. And after having to accept a reduced status over the last year for club and country, a return to Everton signals a fresh start.
It could even help Rooney regain his England place in time for the World Cup next June and extend his England goal record of 53.
Rooney will now be a central figure once again in an Everton team that are looking to break the Premier League’s elite under coach Ronald Koeman.
Everton have sold Romelu Lukaku to United but has signed goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, centreback Michael Keane, midfielder Davy Klaassen and striker Sandro Ramirez this off-season.
Everton’s majority shareholder since February 2016, IranianBritish businessman Farhad Moshiri, wants to take the team higher than last season’s sixth place.
Silverware is the target for a club whose last major trophy came with the 1995 FA Cup and won the ninth of their top-flight titles in 1987.
Rooney scored a record 253 goals for United after moving from Everton for £ 27mil (RM150mil) as an 18-year-old in 2004, winning the Premier League title five times, the FA Cup once, the League Cup three times, the Champions League once and the Europa League last season.
In Rooney’s final season – Jose Mourinho’s first in charge – the United captain only started 15 league games.
Rooney did not quite reach the heights expected of him when he was arguably at the top of his game in the 2009-10 season, at that time playing at a level comparable to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Rooney’s spell at United was also tarnished among sections of fans when he sought to leave the club in 2010 and again at the end of the 2012-13 season, clashing with then- manager Alex Ferguson both times.
Rooney was convinced to stay in 2013 by Ferguson’s immediate successor, David Moyes, at a time when the forward was still in big demand. Rooney departs United as a peripheral figure but he will still go down as one of the club’s greatest players of the modern era. And he has a chance now to cement his status in Everton folklore.
“(Goodison) has always been a special place, even when I’ve been on the opposing team,” Rooney said.
“You always get that feeling when you walk out of the tunnel so to actually do it again in an Everton shirt will be a special moment for me.”
I’ve kept it quiet for the last 13 years but I’ve actually been wearing Everton pyjamas at home with my kids. I had to keep that a bit quiet.
Wayne Rooney