Sohom Sehanobish’s blog: With all the ideological rants and heats circulating around the social media regarding the Romelu Lukaku transfer saga, there’s a less talked about fairytale that is coming to it’s conclusion. It is a story of sacrifice, courage, perfection and loyalty, it is a story of a man who’s hailed as yet another overrated Englishmen who was destined to make it big, however ended up on the eternal side of “never so good and never so bad” scenario, which also surrounded his predecessors. This is the story of Wayne Rooney, a man whom I’ve secretly admired over the years.
From his famous overhead kick against rivals Manchester City to that gorgeous free kick against Arsenal in the 8-2 demolition, his courageous equaliser in the 2011 Champions League Final to that record breaking 250th goal for Manchester United, Rooney made sure that his presence was felt in English football as an icon, as a leader who silently sacrificed his position of a striker for the sake of his club. The number of goals gradually decreased as he was employed to several playmaking roles in the latter years, he became a regular attacking midfielder post 2011 and he was also used as a central midfielder by then coach Louis Van Gaal. Any other star player might have revolted against such awkward treatment, however being the team man he was, his staunch loyalty made him follow his coach’s order without any dissent. Although his international career has been quite underperforming, coming with huge burdens of expectations from his country, he failed to deliver well in the international tournaments he played in, as it took him three world cups to score his first world cup goal and inconsistencies and injuries numbered his opportunities to reciprocate the form he showed in club level.
With the emergence of young talents like Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford in Manchester United, also the current pursuit of Romelu Lukaku and Alvaro Morata clearly stated that Wazza’s days in the iconic red jersey was numbered, however it’ll be another homecoming for him as he’s going back to his childhood club Everton, from where he started his journey at the age of nine. As an admirer of the man, we’d all expect a few more of those outrageous free kicks and long rangers before the man finally hangs up his boots. Thank you, Wazza