Wayne had to leave but new home can help keep stars of future

AS ROONEY TURNS 40 WE LOOK BACK AT TRUE BLUE'S CAREER

- By CHRIS BEESLEY ECHO Reporter

ANY happy returns to Wayne Rooney on his landmark birthday, but while the player himself might not have any regrets at how things turned out, Evertonians certainly do.

The old adage goes that “Life begins at 40” but in truth Rooney has already achieved everything in football and he got there much quicker than most.

This came through him being thrust into senior football when rather than being ‘sweet 16’ he was a precocious man-child, who combined an almost freakish physical maturity and strength beyond his tender years with world-class ability, ensuring he was terrorising senior pros twice his age.

When Rooney was still a schoolboy, that wise old sage and student of the game Colin Harvey, hailed by Dr David France as being the greatest living Evertonian, but one of football’s sternest taskmasters and certainly not a hysterical character prone to hyperbole, reverentially remarked of the protege: “Oh yes. He's like a young Kenny Dalglish. Only quicker of thought and quicker across the ground.”

In short, the lad from Croxteth is the most talented homegrown player that Everton Football Club has ever produced. He won every major honour in the game at club level, but rather than achieved in a royal blue jersey, Rooney's treasure trove of honours were all secured down the East Lancs Road with Manchester United.

Five Premier League titles, an FA Cup, three League Cups, the Champions League, the Europa League and the FIFA Club World Cup. Each one lifted with the Red Devils before he eventually returned to Goodison Park as a ‘Prodigal Son’ in 2017 as Manchester United and England’s all-time leading goalscorer at the time to bookend his Premier League career, back with his boyhood team.