Rooney does dirty work in adjusting to MLS
LOS ANGELES – It was about a week into Wayne Rooney’s move to D.C. United, and everything was going nicely. Except for one, small, confusing issue. His cleats, placed neatly at the foot of his locker room stall, were caked in mud. Still.
“Why are my boots still dirty?” Rooney wondered, first in his own mind and finally aloud to a teammate. At Manchester United and Everton in the English Premier League, the players’ footwear were regularly shined and scrubbed by members of the staff before training each day.
But while Major League Soccer continues to make great strides in terms of quality, attendance and financial clout, valet cleat cleaning has not yet arrived, and might never.
“You clean your own here, and you carry the (gear) to away games,” Rooney said, laughing at the memory. “In England you don’t even have to think about that. Small things are different. The first week I don’t think I cleaned my boots once; I just left them because I didn’t know. Since I was 16 and got into the Everton team, that was something that was always taken care of. But I didn’t mind at all.”
Rooney hasn’t minded much about America and MLS since switching across the Atlantic in July, in a move that not all critics were convinced would work. Once one of the world’s best players, his final two seasons in England had not gone particularly well.
In the USA’s capital, however, Rooney was rejuvenated. He scored 12 goals in 21 games after arriving midseason and sparked a drastic turnaround in the team’s fortunes, taking United from the floor of the Eastern Conference to the playoffs, where only a heartbreaking penalty kicks defeat to the Crew ended the season.
Training camp is about to start ahead of his first full campaign in MLS, with the league’s kickoff on March 2. Rooney has designs on helping D.C. to become a serious contender and has enjoyed the soccer in the U.S. But after being in the full glare of the spotlight since his teens, the way America treats its celebrity athletes has also agreed with him and his family members.
“I think the big difference over here is that they seem to celebrate success of the athletes a bit more,” Rooney said. “Whether it is football or basketball or the NFL or whatever, the big-name play- ers seem to be celebrated a bit more than what they do in England. I think that is just a difference in culture, a difference in the way people are here to back home. That’s the big difference really.”
An example came in December, when Rooney was arrested at Dulles Airport near Washington after returning from an event in Saudi Arabia. Rooney said that a combination of sleeping pills and “some alcohol consumption” had left him “disorientated” as he attempted to pass through a secure door into a restricted area.
The incident was minor enough that he was released on his own recognizance and fined $25. In England, such a situation would have made front page news and likely sparked a conversation about the behavior of star soccer players.
Rooney likes the relative anonymity in his new home, and with it the freedom to take his four sons to trampoline parks or out for fast food without repeated interruption for selfies or banter.
Yet his sporting prominence means there are opportunities that aren’t afforded to regular locals, such as a family invitation to the White House Christmas party, which he described as a “unique” and special experience, while insisting it did not reflect any political leaning.
He’s more concerned with helping to make American soccer great, and while some imported players, such as his former England teammate Steven Gerrard, have gone through the motions in MLS, Rooney has been committed and energetic from the outset.
He has become an unofficial ambassador of sorts, speaking highly of MLS’ emerging young talent. When previous signings have lauded American players’ fitness and work ethic, it was almost a veiled criticism, an inference that they were a plucky bunch lacking real talent. Rooney insists that’s not the case. “I think there are a lot of American players that are very talented,” Rooney said. “I don’t know if it’s just a thing that sticks with people over the fitness, but I don’t think that’s fair really to American players. They are talented; they work hard on their technical ability. A lot of them could play in Europe, but the difficulty is you have to have the (international) caps (to get a work visa).”
Now 33, Rooney balks at any suggestion his career is winding down. The competitive spark still burns within, and while the scenery and the accents are different, there are games to be won and trophies to chase. The cleats might not be clean, but he quickly discovered he can score with dirty ones, so it doesn’t matter.
“The first week I don’t think I cleaned my boots once; I just left them because I didn’t know. ... But I didn’t mind at all.” Wayne Rooney D.C. United forward on the “small things” that are different between the Premier League and MLS