Report by Chris Towland

phrase count: 697character width: 60Wayne Rooney – A New Boy Wonder for English Football?by Chris Towlandwww.Football-Nut.co.ukUntil England’s untimely exit at the hands of the hostnation (and a Swiss Referee), the player producing all thenewspaper headlines throughout Euro 2004 in Portugal was WayneRooney, English football’s most current ‘boy wonder’.Still 4 month’s shy of his nineteenth birthday, Rooney’sfour Euro objectives….. two in opposition to Switzerland (which includes hisshot that rebounded off the post only to hit the Swisskeeper and bounce into the net) and two even more exceptional goalsagainst Croatia, set English hearts racing with hopes of afirst major tournament win given that keeping the Globe Cup aloftin 1966.Individuals hopes, of course, had been eventually brought crashing toearth by a combination of a Wayne Rooney injury, anextremely dubious disallowed objective and traditionally poorpenalty taking by the English crew (including 1 from ourCaptain that Jonny Wilkinson would have been proud of!)No-a single can question Wayne Rooney’s performances for hiscountry, the good quality of his football at global levelor his outstanding goalscoring capacity, but have Rooney’s performances in the blue shirt of his very own club, Everton,been as glowing as individuals when wearing his nationalcolours?……. And what does the long run maintain for our’Roonaldo’?Rooney’s Premiership debut arrived early in the 2002/2003campaign when he became the youngest Premier League playerat the tender age of sixteen. Two other records quicklyfollowed….. To begin with, the two ambitions he scored in Everton’sWorthington Cup victory more than Wrexham gave Rooney the titleof Everton’s youngest-ever before goalscorer, a record that hadpreviously been held by Tommy Lawton. Secondly, in October2002 and at the age of 16 years and 360 days, a cracker of agoal that beat the England goalkeeper David Seaman in thelast couple of seconds of the game towards Arsenal, created Rooneythe youngest-at any time Premiership scorer!Numerous England fans will be shocked to listen to nevertheless, thatapart from a couple of quite notable occasions, Wayne Rooney’sperformances in the Premiership have been less thanspectacular as he has typically seemed unable to duplicate hisEngland kind on the domestic stage!In his first time of Premiership action he created fourteenfull appearances for Everton and arrived on as a substitute atotal of nineteen instances. In the course of this time Rooney scored atotal of six Premiership targets which integrated the target inNovember 2002 that gave Everton their 1st win at LeedsUnited for 51 many years. A month later, Wayne Rooney was sentoff in a sport that Everton drew with Birmingham City.Ironically, this was on the very identical day that James Milnerof Leeds United broke Rooney’s youngest Premiership scorerrecord by the very small margin of just three days!Throughout the 2003/2004 time Rooney was surely catchingthe eye of Sven Goran Erickson, the England staff manager,but statistical records of his season show quite possibly a lowertally in the goalscoring division than several England fanswould have expected. In reality, from twenty-6 fullappearances and 8 as a substitute, Wayne Rooney scoredonly nine Premiership goals.But as for the past, who cares? As the complete of Europe saw,Rooney was masterful during Euro 2004 and if it wasn’t forhis damaged metatarsal who is aware how far he and his Englandteammates could have progressed?As for the future, there is speak in the press of massivebids in the area of £50 million from either Chelsea orManchester United. Rooney himself is stated to favor theManchester selection which would preserve him near to his North-West roots but it is possible that the deep Chelsea pocketsmay force United out of the bidding.Wherever Wayne Rooney ends up enjoying his football for thenext handful of seasons, let’s hope that for the sake of theEnglish game his progress continues and that he reaches theheady heights that have been forecast for him and reallydoes grow to be England’s ‘Boy Wonder’!Chris TowlandJune 2004

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