Wayne Rooney turns 30 today, the day before the Manchester derby. He has had a 14 year career in the top flight and finds himself a potential superstar turned great survivor.
He will be 30 on Saturday. Wayne Rooney has aged before our
eyes. He has scored and slowed. He has achieved but, given those early
predictions, perhaps underachieved. He has been the constant and the
chameleon. There are three Rooneys: the player he is, the player he was
and the player we thought he would become.
Landmark birthdays offer a time for reflection. With the
defiance of one whose decline has been widely described, Rooney declared
this week that he has years of top-level football ahead of him. Indeed,
he has the best part of four remaining on his lucrative Manchester United contract.
Wayne Rooney celebrates with teammate Cristiano Ronaldo - Reuters
He is amassing formidable
numbers. Consider the possible figures when he eventually vacates the
stage: perhaps a record 65 goals in a record 150 games for England and a
record 300 goals in 700 United appearances. Future generations may see
the statistics and marvel at the wonder of the era of Rooney. He captains United in a Manchester derby on
Sunday.
The comparisons with past greats, whether Pele or Diego Maradona, or their current counterparts, Ronaldo and Lionel Messi,
are rendered obsolete. There is no contest. Rooney does not belong in
their bracket. The more pertinent evaluations concern rivals – City’s
Sergio Aguero, when fit, brings a sharpness Rooney has mislaid – and
colleagues. Anthony Martial
is generating the sort of excitement Rooney once did. He is 19 and has
scored 20 goals in his career. But he offers a sense of endless
possibilities, of glorious potential, of better times to come. He is the
future, and Rooney was the future once.
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