In this article, we take a quick look at Wayne Rooney’s top five individual moments during his illustrious 13-year playing career at Manchester United.
In this article, we take a quick look at Wayne Rooney’s top five individual moments during his illustrious 13-year playing career at Manchester United.
It must be noted that whilst Rooney has won some incredible trophies over the years, these five moments will only be pieces of individual brilliance from the former skipper rather than team moments which included him.
5. Volley vs Newcastle United
Rooney gained a reputation early in his Manchester United career as a hot-headed centre-forward. Usually, throughout his career, his temper on the pitch caused him to pile up a whole host yellow cards, predominantly for arguing with the match officials.
However, on one occasion, against Newcastle United at Old Trafford back in April 2005, the England international had just finished arguing with the referee and was vividly full of rage. Leaving the conversation, 35 yards out from goal, Rooney saw the ball falling to him after a headed clearance from the Magpies defender.
He smashed the ball with all his might past Shay Given to level the game for United, one of his best ever goals for the club.
4. Debut Hattrick
In the summer of 2004, Rooney signed for Manchester United for a reported £26 million from David Moyes’ Everton, a world record fee for a player under the age of 20 years old.
There was a lot of pressure on his young shoulders because of the huge fee paid for him, and the eyes of the world watched him as he lined up to make his debut for Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League against Fenerbahce.
The youngster silenced his critics and put on a historic show, scoring three goals against the Turkish giants, as well as providing an assist as Sir Alex Ferguson’s side smashed six past Fenerbahce.
3. Record-Breaker
In his final season at the club, it look inevitable that Rooney would leave at the end of the season. However, he was still chasing Sir Bobby Charlton’s goal record of 249 goals for the Reds.
At the Britannia Stadium (as it was named at the time), Jose Mourinho’s side were 1-0 down to Stoke City in the late January of 2017. With the game in added time, gaining even a point from the game seemed unlikely, but United gifted a free-kick from quite some distance to give them a chance.
Up stepped the captain to smash home his 250th goal, becoming United’s all-time top goalscorer and rescuing his side from utter humiliation, with an incredible strike.
2. 4 Goals vs Hull City
Rooney was always hailed as an excellent player for his club but many people outside of Manchester United never saw him as one of Europe’s elite. The number 10 had a decent goalscoring record but it could never match up to that of European football’s finest centre-forwards.
That was until Cristiano Ronaldo left for Real Madrid in 2009 for a world-record fee. Rooney was forced to step up his game even further after the departure of the five-time Ballon D’Or winner, and that season, he had his joint-best goalscoring season for the club, in which he bagged 34 goals in all competitions.
Among these 34 goals was four-goal thrashing of Hull City. Manchester United managed to win 4-0 in that matchup, with Rooney scoring all four goals, proving to the world why he was one of Europe’s elite strikers.
1. That Overhead
Quite an obvious choice but one that needs to be here, was Wayne Rooney’s sumptuous overhead kick against bitter rivals Manchester City back in 2011.
The match was tied at 1-1 at Old Trafford on that February afternoon. The game was into the final 15 minutes of normal time and United had the ball in their own half. Paul Scholes played a lovely ball out to Nani on the right-wing who looked up to find Rooney making a dart into the box.
However, the cross took a deflection off the knee of Pablo Zabaleta and Rooney’s run was halted. The ball was dropping from the air and any normal player would have tried to contest the aerial ball with one of the opposition’s defenders or else tried to trap it and lay it off.
Rooney decided to perform a bicycle kick, smashing the ball past Joe Hart in the City net and winning the game for Manchester United who went on to claim their 19th league title that season.
The goal was one of the best if not the best goal ever scored in the Premier League, one of which still gives goosebumps to Manchester United fans today when they watch it back.
We here at The United Stand wish Wayne Rooney all the best with his future career in management, following yesterday’s news that the former England captain had retired to deservedly become Derby County’s permanent manager.
He finished his Manchester United career with 253 goals in 559 matches in all competitions, whilst also winning 16 trophies, including five Premier League titles and a UEFA Champions League.
Let us know if you agree or if you what you believe are his top five individual moments at the club via the comment section below.
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Rooney was just exceptional! Kudos to him!