THE BIG MAN IS BACK
But this time former England captain Rooney is seven time zones away making MLS debut
THERE was a moment in training yesterday when Wayne Rooney’s team-mates were left in no doubt that it was, quite literally, time to get down to business.
DC United’s squad had split into two to do ‘rondos’ — when a ball is passed around a circle with one man trying to win it back — before the main session started.
There were laughs among his group when Rooney’s first pass saw him become ‘piggy in the middle’ but soon the laughter stopped. Any thought Rooney would spend a few minutes chasing shadows was swiftly extinguished; the first pass was slightly off target and, with that, the 32-year- old flung himself into a slide tackle — something you don’t tend to see in such a light-hearted drill — and won back possession.
‘The big man is back,’ he declared after shaking off an injury to be fit on the eve of England’s 2006 World Cup campaign. It wasn’t the glitz and the glamour of football’s biggest stage, but this was Rooney announcing himself to his new team-mates. When he was unveiled by DC United 10 days ago, at a venue a stone’s throw from the iconic US Capitol Building, his overriding message was that he had not crossed the Atlantic to retire.
Those who have watched him go about his work since then have realised those words have substance. Rooney, England’s record goalscorer, will make his first appearance for DC United in the early hours of tomorrow morning but it has not yet been decided whether he will start against Vancouver Whitecaps.
Part of him would have loved to have been in Russia with England’s World Cup squad and, perhaps, if last season he had scored his 11 goals for Everton after Christmas, rather than before, there would have been a clamour for him to be included in Gareth Southgate’s squad.
The focus tomorrow, inevitably, will be on Moscow as France and Croatia square up, but across the Atlantic, the clash between DC and Vancouver will carry great significance for Rooney.
Nobody, it must be stressed, is trying to pretend DC United have signed the buccaneering forward of 10 years ago but the pride that still burns inside means he is approaching this contest as if it was a Premier League game. He has a point to prove. It still hurts how things ended with Everton. Yesterday marked a year to the day since Rooney scored his first goal after that romantic return from Old Trafford during a friendly in Tanzania and how he was told he could leave rankles.
‘I said to Everton, “Listen, I’m not a kid, and if (leaving) is what you want, tell me,’ Rooney told
ESPN FC earlier this week. ‘If you want me to stay, tell me and we talked about it. As an 18-year-old, I wouldn’t have been able to handle that the way I have now.
‘They told me, and I said “Fair enough”. I’m not going to disrespect the club. So this option became available and I felt this was the right one.’
To give you an idea of how his mind- set has not changed, he turned down the chance to speak after the session — which DC’s coowner Jason Levien and general manager Dave Casper watched — Field home and the lucrative three-and-a-half year contract they have handed Rooney reflects their ambition.
While some people in DC remain unmoved by the hype and are unaware of who Rooney is, the excitement around the club is tangible. It has also, however, thrown them into unchartered waters.
For example, TMZ — the leading tabloid entertainment platform in the US — have sent paparazzi to follow them. Usually, they would have no interest in sport but Rooney’s name has changed the dynamic. He is still big news, after all. He always will be.