Wayne Rooney has shared his reasons for staying at Everton instead of going back to Manchester United.
Rooney was a product of Everton’s development system and made his debut in 2002 at the age of sixteen. He played for the Merseyside first team for two years before being recruited by Sir Alex Ferguson to Manchester United, where he spent 13 years developing into one of Europe’s top players. After that, he signed a free move back to Goodison Park, where he spent a season scoring his 200th Premier League goal before leaving for the MLS in America.
Even though he had a tense connection with the Everton supporters while he was at United, there was a lot of conjecture at the time that he might rejoin the team. The player said, during an interview on Overlap’s Stick to Football YouTube show, that the harassment subsided over time and enabled him to rejoin the team, despite the fact that it threatened to destroy their relationship.
“When I originally joined Manchester United, I never gave thought to returning to Everton, especially because I was receiving a lot of criticism from the fan support. However, as I started going to a few games, that started to alter over time. At that point, I began to consider how much it would mean to my kids to watch me represent Everton. Both Everton and Manchester United are teams that my kids support. I was a huge fan of Everton. After completing the academy, I continue to follow and support them.
He continued to list off his accomplishments, including scoring his first and only hat-trick for Everton, which was completed with an incredible strike from the halfway line against West Ham, and reaching 208 goals in the Premier League, which places him third on the all-time scorers list. He also edged ahead of Frank Lampard into third place for all-time assists.
