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Wayne Rooney: Five things we found out about him in his new Amazon documentary

Rooney

On Friday, Wayne Rooney’s highly-anticipated documentary 'Rooney' premiered on Amazon Prime.

It feels like Rooney has been around forever, and with him being the current Derby County manager, it's easy to forget he's only 36 years old.
Rooney burst onto the scene in 2002 at the age of 16 - one week shy of turning 17 - and got the nation gripped when he scored a stunning winner against Arsenal. At the time, the goal made him the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history.
What was more impressive was that he managed to score a wondergoal against an Arsenal side which included Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira and David Seaman.

"He's the biggest English talent I've seen here, since I've been in England," says the former manager Arsene Wenger in footage taken from a post-match interview, shortly after his Arsenal side had been sunk by a wonder-goal from Rooney.

"I hope he will not be injured now, in the next two or three years, and that mentally he'll be able to cope with what's happening to him. He's a huge talent."

The documentary looks at Rooney's life growing up in Croxteth and celebrates his record-breaking career at Manchester United and England as well as some of his lowest points.

Below, we take a look at five things we learned about Amazon's documentary Rooney.

Rooney loves to fight

From watching him on the pitch it was quite clear to see that Wayne Rooney wore his heart on his sleeve.
The documentary looks at Rooney's upbringing and while he would never look for a fight, Rooney often found himself in scraps - by the age of 12, and one occasion he went home with a broken jaw.
Rooney said: "I wasn't the nicest kid at that age.
"I did some things which were wrong and had a lot of fights when I was younger.
"I wouldn't say I was a bully but there were things I shouldn't have done and I crossed the line."
He added: "I don't know if it was anger. Sometimes you got hit and that's not nice but I used to get some sort of enjoyment out of it.
"Growing up I used to go to a lot of concerts, a lot of Travellers concerts, Stereophonics, Cast, who were a Liverpool band. There was normally a lot of fighting at the end of it.
"You can imagine in the middle of the mosh pit there's probably about 15 of us, all Scousers, and we could be in the middle of Manchester and would always end up with it being a fight between someone.
"I remember getting my jaw snapped in Manchester. I was about 13 and some guy grabs hold of me and hit me.
"He went to hit me again and I just dropped and threw a big haymaker at him and caught him and then I ran off.
"We wouldn't go knowing there was going to be a fight but we knew there was a chance."

Intent to injure player

Wayne Rooney admitted he had intentions of deliberately injuring a player during Man United's visit to Stamford Bridge.

Sir Alex Ferguson's side would lose 3-0 to Chelsea, and the win handed the Blues a second successive domestic title under Jose Mourinho in 2006.

Of that 2006 trip to Stamford Bridge, the Man United legend said: "We knew if Chelsea won then they had won the league that day.
"Until my last game for Derby, I always wore the old plastic studs with the metal tip.
"For that game I changed them to big, long metal ones - the maximum length you could have because I wanted to try and hurt someone, try and injure someone.
"I knew they were going to win that game. You could feel they were a better team at the time so I changed my studs.
"The studs were legal but thinking if there's a challenge there I knew I'd want to go in for it properly, basically. I did actually.
"John Terry left the stadium on crutches. I left a hole in his foot and then I signed my shirt to him after the game…and a few weeks later I sent it to him and asked for my stud back.
"If you look back when they were celebrating, JT's got his crutches from that tackle."
The FA have since contacted Rooney to investigate his quotes and it could see the Man United legend receive a hefty fine.
Terry has since responded to Rooney's comments but hardly seemed bothered by what he said.

Secret World Cup injury

By the 2006 World Cup, Rooney was England's golden boy but there were fears over his availability after breaking three metatarsals in his foot.
Rooney would play for the Three Lions in Germany but produced several underwhelming performances and didn't score a single goal - unlike his debut tournament at Euro 2004 where he scored three goals. England exited the World Cup in the quarter-finals on penalties to Portugal - a game which saw Rooney sent off.
However, it has now been revealed that it wasn't a foot injury that hampered him.
Writing in the Sunday Times, England's record goalscorer said of his recovery from the foot injury: "The next day was my first training session with the team. I don't think anyone knows this, but we were jogging round the training pitch for the warm-up and there was a ball. I couldn't resist.
"I hit it from the halfway line, trying to strike the crossbar and felt my groin tear. I knew straight away. I was: 'Oh, f**king hell.'
"I got one of the physios to work quietly on it every day. I was taking painkillers. I didn't want to say anything because a lot of people had put a lot of work into getting me fit. I didn't report the injury until the tournament was over - and there was a 6cm tear in my groin."

Ferguson transfers

In 2010, Wayne Rooney shocked the world when he revealed he wanted to leave Manchester United.

United - after competing in three Champions League finals, including a win over Chelsea on penalties in the final - had seen the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez in 2009, leaving Rooney as the only prolific forward remaining at the club.

Rooney stormed into Sir Alex Ferguson's office and demanded to find out who they would be signing to replace the pair, only to be kicked out. The striker handed in a transfer request only to retract it days later and sign a new contract.

The 36-year-old stands by his decision of questioning Ferguson and former chief executive David Gill. Rooney believes Man United paid the consequences for not listening to him five years later, claiming Fergie knew it too, and got out as soon as he could.

"They were offering me a contract of £200,000 a week, so it would have been quite easy for me to say, 'five years, £200,000 a week… let me sign it now'. It would have been quite easy for me to do that. But I wanted success on the pitch - that means more to me.

"Actually, if you look five years down the line from that meeting - Alex Ferguson knew where the club was going and he got out of there as quick as he could, and they're still picking up the pieces now.

"We sold [Carlos] Tevez, then we sold [Cristiano] Ronaldo, I was the one player left who was high profile," said Rooney.

'I went into Alex Ferguson's office, and I said to him: "What's the plan here? At the minute, we've brought in two young English players who are unproven. I remember Alex Ferguson's response was, 'get out of my office,'" Rooney added.

A competitive father

With five Premier League titles, a Champions League crown and multiple domestic cups won, there is no questioning Wayne Rooney's desire to win.
It is put to the test during his Amazon documentary as he beats his own children at snakes and ladders - making them cry in the process.
It left Coleen Rooney - his wife and mother of their four children - unimpressed as she rolls her eyes at the camera.
When it comes to cooking though, it's a completely different story. Rooney admits he adds too much white pepper to meals and leaves it all to Coleen in the kitchen.
Director and filmmaker Matt Smith admitted the Rooney's are 'lovely human beings'.
"I've worked with a few footballers now and yeah, they've all got massive lovely houses, but they are just normal human beings behind it all," he said.
"Coleen and Wayne were lovely, they straight away offered me a cup of tea and brought me a biscuit.
"I asked Wayne a question, 'who does all the cooking?' and Wayne laughed and said, 'it's mainly Coleen,' because Wayne puts too much white pepper in all his food and ruins all the cooking. So they are just normal."

Read more: How many goals will Tottenham striker Harry Kane end up with this season?

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