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. He is occasionally utilised in a deeper playmaking role.

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 September 2011, he has won 73 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 August of the 2011–12 season Rooney scored his 150th goal, becoming United's highest goalscorer since the inception of the Premier League.

In 2009–10, Rooney was awarded the PFA Players' Player of the Year and the FWA Footballer of the Year. Rooney has won the Premier League 'Goal of the Season' award by the BBC's Match of the Day poll on three occasions. As of 2011, he 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 Rooney (née Morrey). He is of Irish descent and was brought up Catholic in Croxteth with younger brothers Graeme and John; all three attended De La Salle School. He grew up supporting his local club Everton; his childhood hero was Duncan Ferguson.

Family

Rooney met his wife, Coleen Rooney (née McLoughlin), while both were at secondary school. They married on 12 June 2008 after six years of dating, during which Rooney admitted to soliciting prostitution in Liverpool in 2004. '"I was young and stupid. It was at a time when I was very young and immature and before I had settled down with Coleen." He has a tattoo of the words "Just Enough Education to Perform", the title of an album by his favorite band, the Stereophonics; Coleen arranged for the group to play at their wedding reception. The wedding ran into some controversy with the Catholic Church. The couple held a religious ceremony at La Cervara, a converted monastery near Genoa, despite being warned by the local bishop's office against the plan. The bishop's office told the Rooneys that La Cervara is deconsecrated and not suitable for a wedding. It suggested a different church, five miles away. Nevertheless, the couple ignored the advice and Father Edward Quinn, their local priest from Croxteth, presided over a ceremony in which rings were exchanged.

In April 2006, he was awarded £100,000 in libel damages from tabloids The Sun and News of the World, who had claimed that he had assaulted Coleen in a nightclub. Rooney donated the money to charity.

The Rooneys reside in a £4.25 million mansion in the village of Prestbury, Cheshire, which was built by a company owned by Dawn Ward, the wife of former Sheffield United striker Ashley Ward. He also owns property in Port Charlotte, Florida. While Rooney was house hunting in Cheshire after signing with Manchester United, he spotted a pub sign that read "Admiral Rodney", which he misread as "Admiral Rooney." He nonetheless considered it a positive omen for his future home. Rooney owns a French mastiff dog, which was reportedly bought for £1,250.

Rooney's wife Coleen announced on 7 April 2009 that the couple were expecting their first baby. Coleen gave birth to their son, Kai Wayne Rooney, on 2 November 2009.

Rooney's younger brother, John Rooney, is also a professional footballer, who has played with Macclesfield Town, and in January 2011 signed a contract to play in Major League Soccer in the United States. John was selected by the New York Red Bulls in the second round of the 2011 MLS SuperDraft.

From : www.wikipedia.org