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Wayne Rooney – A New Boy Wonder for English Football?

by Chris Towland

www.Football-Nut.co.uk

Until England’s untimely exit at the hands of the host

nation (and a Swiss Referee), the player making all the

newspaper headlines during Euro 2004 in Portugal was Wayne

Rooney, English football’s latest ‘boy wonder’.

Still four month’s shy of his nineteenth birthday, Rooney’s

four Euro goals ….. two against Switzerland(including his

shot that rebounded off the post only to hit the Swiss

keeper and bounce into the net) and two further superb goals

against Croatia, set English hearts racing with hopes of a

first major tournament win since holding the World Cup aloft

in 1966.

Those hopes, of course, were eventually brought crashing to

earth by a combination of a Wayne Rooney injury, an

extremely dubious disallowed goal and traditionally poor

penalty taking by the English team (including one from our

Captain that Jonny Wilkinson would have been proud of!)

No-one can question Wayne Rooney’s performances for his

country, the quality of his football at international level

or his incredible goalscoring ability, but have Rooney’s

performances in the blue shirt of his own club, Everton,

been as sparkling as those when wearing his national

colours? ……. And what does the future hold for our

‘Roonaldo’?

Rooney’s Premiership debut arrived early in the 2002/2003

campaign when he became the youngest Premier League player

at the tender age of sixteen. Two other records quickly

followed ….. Firstly, the two goals he scored in Everton’s

Worthington Cup victory over Wrexham gave Rooney the title

of Everton’s youngest-ever goalscorer, a record that had

previously been held by Tommy Lawton. Secondly, in October

2002 and Evelyne at the age of 16 years and 360 days, a cracker of a

goal that beat the England goalkeeper David Seaman in the

last few seconds of the game against Arsenal, made Rooney

the youngest-ever Premiership scorer!

Many England fans will be surprised to hear however, that

apart from a few very notable occasions, Wayne Rooney’s

performances in the Premiership have been less than

spectacular as he has often seemed unable to duplicate his

England form on the domestic stage!

In his first season of Premiership action he made fourteen

full appearances for Everton and came on as a substitute a

total of nineteen times. During this season Rooney scored a

total of six Premiership goals which included the goal in

November 2002 that gave Everton their first win at Leeds

United for 51 years. A month later, Wayne Rooney was sent

off in a game that Everton drew with Birmingham City.

Ironically, حقائب جلدية this was on the very same day that James Milner

of Leeds United broke Rooney’s youngest Premiership scorer

record by the tiny margin of just three days!

During the 2003/2004 season Rooney was certainly catching

the eye of Sven Goran Erickson, the England team manager,

but statistical records of his season show possibly a lower

tally in the goalscoring department than many England fans

would have expected. In fact, from twenty-six full

appearances and eight as a substitute, Wayne Rooney scored

only nine Premiership goals.

But as for the past, who cares? As the whole of Europe saw,

Rooney was masterful during Euro2004 and if it wasn’t for

his broken metatarsal who knows how far he and his England

teammates could have progressed?

As for the future, there is talk in the press of massive

bids in the region of £50 million from either Chelsea or

Manchester United. Rooney himself is said to prefer the

Manchester option which would keep him close to his North-

West roots but it is possible that the deep Chelsea pockets

may force United out of the bidding.

Wherever Wayne Rooney ends up playing his football for the

next few seasons, let’s hope that for the sake of the

English game his progress continues and that he reaches the

heady heights that have been forecast for him and really

does become England’s ‘Boy Wonder’!

Chris Towland

June 2004

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