Wayne Rooney received a surprising phone call enticing him to join Manchester United when he was a teenager – from Paul Scholes.
Speaking on the latest episode of his podcast The Wayne Rooney Show, the former England captain spoke about the process of joining United, why he nearly went to Newcastle and receiving interest from abroad.
“While I was still at Everton, I was sat at home one night and watching Coronation Street and my house phone rings. So I answered it, it’s Paul Scholes,” he said. “Like, ‘Wazza, it’s Scholesy… are you going to sign for us or what?’ I was just sat there, I was like: What’s going on here?”
Rooney joined Manchester United from Everton in 2004 when he was 18, but he says manager Sir Alex Ferguson would ideally have waited longer to recruit him.
The Red Devils had to move quickly, though, to prevent him joining Newcastle instead.
“I think, if I’m being honest, that Alex Ferguson wanted to wait another year. And then Newcastle kept coming in and I would have gone to Newcastle if United didn’t sign me then,” he said.
“It got to the last day and then [Everton chairman] Bill Kenwright wouldn’t send the forms over. And Bill, God rest him, was very emotional. And I’m a local lad from Liverpool playing for Everton. It was massive. And he actually got on the phone, put his mum on the phone to me when I was at Old Trafford, then he got on the phone and he was crying down the phone.”
Rooney joined United on transfer deadline day, with the deal coming so quickly that he ended up wearing his wife Coleen’s cousin’s jumper when he made the move.
“I was quite chilled and there was a lot of press trying to follow me around and stuff,” Rooney said.
“I was actually staying in Coleen’s uncle’s in Liverpool. And the night before deadline day, we sat in, we had a Chinese, a few glasses of wine and then I actually had no clothes there.
“So, the jumper that I signed for Manchester United in was Coleen’s cousin’s jumper! So yeah, it shows how prepared I was for it.”
