Wayne Rooney is such a team man that not only does he fly economy with the rest of the DC United players, unlike some other big-name recruits from Europe to the MLS, but he has also joined the squad’s NFL fantasy football league in order to assimilate himself more quickly into locker-room life.
The former Manchester United and England captain wants to join in all the chatter with his new team-mates, who love this humble, hard-working Englishman keeping DC’s Eastern Conference play-off dream alive with his nine goals and seven assists in 16 games. The 32-year-old scored both goals in Sunday’s 2-1 win over Chicago Fire at Audi Field, a clever flick and a penalty.
Sitting in the dressing room afterwards, having cooled down from the ferocious conditions that brought to mind humid memories of Manaus and the World Cup in 2014, Rooney spoke warmly of being able to enjoy “everyday life” in a land increasingly interested by “soccer” but not as obsessed as his homeland. In England, Rooney could not really visit the Trafford Centre without being mobbed. Here, it is a whole new mall game.
Rooney scores a penalty in DC’s 2-1 win over Chicago FireGEOFF BURKE USA TODAY SPORTS
In the past five years living in England, Rooney went to the Trafford Centre once. “It’s just the hassle. You know people are going to come up, asking for pictures and you’re expected to do them and then it gets a bit frustrating, especially for my children. I want to spend time with them. Over here it is different. In terms of my time with my family, it’s a lot more enjoyable now. It’s something I didn’t have as a child growing up from 16 going into the first team [at Everton] and England [aged 17].”
His kids are enrolled in a British school and he enlists in local life. “I’ve been to baseball a few times, I’ve joined the fantasy league for the NFL with the lads here. I know the [ice] hockey is about to start. It’s important you get into them because they are the national sports and you can have banter in the dressing room rather than not know what is going on and being lost in it.”
The prolific, industrious Rooney has become such a favourite at DC that President Trump’s Arsenal-supporting son, Barron, who turned out in midfield for DC United’s under-12s last season, is a huge fan. Rooney has yet to be tempted to play golf with the president.
Before giving him a lucrative three-and-a-half-year contract in June, the DC hierarchy did due diligence on Rooney. “We did enough research on his character,” Ben Olsen, their engaging 41-year-old head coach and a former US midfielder briefly on Nottingham Forest’s books, says. “Players who played with Wayne, coaches, agents, all said the same thing: He’s just Wayne, he goes about his business, a great team-mate and a winner.”
DC realised that there is no ego to Rooney, just drive. “We knew as we spent more time with Wayne that he was here for all the right reasons, that he wanted to dig in and start the next chapter of his career and go for the championship again,” the chief executive, Jason Levien, says.
Rooney enjoys a reunion with Schweinsteiger at Audi Field on SundayGEOFF BURKE/USA TODAY SPORTS
When they got round to discussing team tactics, Olsen told Rooney: “I’m going to play you as a No 9, and I want you to score goals again.” He has always been good in the air and in space and relishes his role at Audi Field, just off Washington’s famed Museum Mile. Olsen also told Rooney that he has the “freedom” to roam, dropping off, and his movement confused Chicago at times, even with Bastian Schweinsteiger organising their defence as a rather glamorous left-sided centre back.
The pair embraced at the final whistle, continuing respect forged as opponents from Bloemfontein to Bayern Munich and as team-mates at United. “It was great Wazza came over here but it’s still not his kind of weather, his head gets very red!” Schweinsteiger laughs. “It’s good to see him. He’s doing very well here.”
Rooney enjoyed catching up with Schweinsteiger. “He has won everything there is to win,” Rooney said. “He’s a top-class player, a good person who just loves football.” Schweinsteiger noted Rooney’s undimmed hunger, a quality quickly appreciated by DC. “No one in our fanbase knew exactly what to expect in terms of his commitment levels,” Levien says, “but then we had an early match [against Colorado Rapids] where he broke his nose, scarred his face and came back on the pitch [having five stitches later]. The next match [against Montreal Impact] he headed the ball and damaged himself some more and our fans are falling more and more in love with him.” His shirts sell out.
DC players and staff love him too. “He has given the players some swagger and I knew he would hold guys accountable,” Olsen says. “Players like him are rare, players with the hunger and that fear of failure that drives them.”
That hunger seeps through Rooney’s conversation as he sits in a locker-room, Kanye West thumping from the speakers, and reflects on his career. Even becoming a Champions League winner in Moscow in 2008 did not leave Rooney feeling fulfilled.
“Not really. You feel more the ones you lose than the ones you win. When you lose you think you can do better individually — which sticks with you.”
He thinks of the most painful defeats. “The two finals, the Champions League finals,” he says of the losses to Lionel Messi’s Barcelona in Rome in 2009 and Wembley in 2011. “If we’d been against any other team but Barcelona, you’d have fancied us to win. In my eyes they’re the best team ever and Messi is the best player ever. He’s incredible.”
Rooney pauses as he considers the debate about Messi, his old nemesis, and Cristiano Ronaldo, his old team-mate. “Messi and Ronaldo are different players. Ronaldo has gone from a winger to a striker and a goalscorer rather than taking players on all the time, gone more one or two touch and getting in the box and scoring goals, where Messi has just got a bit of everything. You see Messi scoring goals from a deep midfield role at times.”
Rooney resumed his trip down memory lane. “Probably the most painful was Arsenal in the FA Cup final in 2005. We dominated the game, could have won by three or four goals but lost on penalties. That game sticks out.”
Sitting on a small chair, looking lean and his face almost gaunt from all this playing and training in this furnace across the Atlantic, Rooney’s thoughts do dart back across the pond. England’s greatest goalscorer, who retired from international football last year, he needs no prompting to know that this is international week, having seen Gareth Southgate’s latest youthful squad.
“It was a difficult situation to walk away from but I thought it was the right time, not only for myself but for England,” he says. “With the quality in the squad, the potential is there in the next four years. I just thought I’d got to a stage when it was best for me to step aside and let them come through and flourish under the new manager and new system.
“Me being there, maybe some players might have felt I was holding them back. I have no regrets with the decision I’ve made. I watched them in the World Cup and I loved to watch them as a fan. It was something I haven’t done since school. I know players say they can’t bear to watch but, if you know the time was right for you to step away from it, then you can enjoy it.”
He is enjoying the young ones with England, such as the teenagers Jadon Sancho and Mason Mount. “It’s good to try players,” he says. “Some players might surprise you, and some players play a lot better when they are around better quality players.
“Hopefully some of those players can surprise everyone and take their chance. It’s great that Gareth has given them that faith and that belief. If they are not good enough you can always put them back in the under-21s or wherever.”
Sancho and others have gone abroad, to ensure regular game-time. “It’s good because some of them aren’t getting the chances they need and may need to look abroad to get that chance,” Rooney adds.
Rooney signed a lucrative three-and-a-half-year contract in JunePA
“It’s a shame in some ways but it may be the best option for some players to get top-level football. He [Sancho] has done that [with Borussia Dortmund] and probably done better than people think and maybe some more young players will follow.”
Rooney understands the Catch 22. “There is a lot of pressure on all the managers, especially with managers getting sacked after six months so they probably feel they haven’t got the time to play a young player into the team,” he says.
“It’s difficult for so many players but they have to try and demand to play by their performances as Rashford, Lingard and Raheem Sterling did in the last couple of years. The manager has had no option but to play them. Maybe they have to do that a bit more.
“It is hard because people want more English players, more English coaches but some of the foreign coaches have brought a different level to the young English players. With the likes of Guardiola and Klopp, you’re seeing the likes of Sterling, how much he is improving [under Guardiola]. It is hard; we all want English coaches, English players but sometimes you have to embrace the top-class foreign ones.”
He sympathises with the youngsters coming through, having seen how the external pressures have increased. “Of course, yes, social media has. When you’re younger it is more difficult to deal with,” he says.
“Some of the players are looking at social media and getting down because whether they play well or not they’re going to get people saying bad things. Players have to understand, to listen to your coaches and team-mates as they are the ones who are honest with you.”
Talking of youngsters, Rooney coached some of the junior age-groups at United and coaching is a road he will head down later on. “I haven’t started the badges yet because I wanted to get settled in here with the family first. I’ll start when the season finishes here. Hopefully, by the time I go back to England, I will have them.”
DC will assist Rooney on his coaching pathway. “He has expressed an interest,” Levien confirms. “He has an extremely high soccer IQ and that shouldn’t surprise anyone,” Olsen adds. “He has been around the game at a high level since he was 16, been around some wonderful coaches, loves the game, and I don’t see why he couldn’t make a very good coach.” Nothing is imminent. Rooney’s playing too well. “He’s an absolute joy to work with,” Olsen concludes.
