“Their common age is 26. They’re within the prime of their footballing lives,” Clive Tyldesley, the ITV commentator, mentioned into his microphone as England ready to kick off in opposition to France at Euro 2004.
David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Michael Owen, Sol Campbell… this was England’s golden technology at their peak.
But it was the baby-faced murderer amongst them, or the assassin-faced child as some preferred to name him, who performed as if he was able to take over the world.
This summer time marks 20 years since Wayne Rooney, aged 18, went on the rampage at Euro 2004.
“Like a raging bull,” Emile Heskey, the previous England striker, says. “The youthful enthusiasm, plus the fearlessness. He was phenomenal.”
Uncooked, unstable and prodigiously gifted, Rooney scored 4 objectives in three-and-a-bit video games (England will ceaselessly marvel what may need been however for that metatarsal damage within the early levels of the quarter-final in opposition to Portugal), and lit up the group stage.
“I don’t keep in mind anybody making such an impression on a event since Pele within the 1958 World Cup,” Sven-Goran Eriksson, England’s supervisor, mentioned. “He’s an entire footballer.”
(Michael Mayhew/Sportsphoto/Allstar by way of Getty Photographs)
Straight outta Croxteth, Rooney’s means was a product of the place he grew up in Liverpool quite than how he had been coached.
“No person can take credit score for Wayne’s improvement,” David Moyes, Rooney’s supervisor when he broke by at Everton, mirrored a few years later. “He’s in all probability the final of these avenue gamers that was the fashion whenever you return to all of the greats.”
That was how Rooney performed in Portugal – as if he had simply walked out of his outdated home on Armill Street, on the council property that formed and outlined his upbringing, with a ball tucked underneath his arm, able to tackle anybody and everybody who fancied their probabilities.
“Soccer vanity, in that he simply didn’t care,” says Jamie Carragher, who was a part of the England squad at Euro 2004.
“He was enjoying the best stage of soccer that you would play anyplace on the earth that summer time and he handled it like he was coaching with Everton’s youth staff. He was working round, knocking folks out the best way and simply doing what he wished.”
The France recreation was astonishing. Rooney nutmegged Robert Pires, went toe-to-toe with Claude Makelele, pirouetted away from Zinedine Zidane with a roulette flip, gained a penalty with a panoramic run that began from inside his personal half, and revelled within the worry that he noticed within the eyes of Lilian Thuram and Mikael Silvestre.
“I feel you would see their centre-backs have been scared to go close to me,” Rooney mentioned on the Amazon documentary about his life that was launched two years in the past.
Whether or not you have been watching at residence from the consolation of your couch, excessive up within the stands within the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon, and even pitchside on the England substitutes’ bench, Rooney’s emergence as a world star made for compelling viewing.
“I keep in mind everybody was simply taking a look at one another open-mouthed,” Carragher says.
“I image that scene with (Paul) Merson laughing after Owen’s objective in opposition to Argentina in 1998 – we have been like that on the bench (in opposition to France). We have been like, ‘Oh my God. Is he actually doing that to these gamers?’”
🏴 When teenager Wayne Rooney dazzled at EURO 2004 🤩
👀 Which teenager are you backing to shine for the Three Lions this time?@England | @WayneRooney | #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/bNTbCxQjkF
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) June 13, 2021
Trying again, it was a watershed second for Rooney, who moved to Outdated Trafford from Everton for greater than £25million (then $45m) later that summer time.
“I don’t assume he was stitched on for Manchester United earlier than Euro 2004,” says Tyldesley, who delivered his well-known ‘Keep in mind the identify’ commentary line nearly two years earlier, after Rooney had scored that objective in opposition to Arsenal for Everton.
“I feel there was a giant shout for Newcastle on the time and possibly Chelsea. However there was hypothesis about his future quite than an inevitability that he would begin the brand new season in several colors.
“So this, actually, is your story: this was the making of Wayne Rooney, this was when he got here to the world’s consideration.”
“I doubt how a lot Rooney may give to England. He’s very younger – too younger for such a tough competitors like this. He lacks worldwide expertise, so for England to rely on him to attain their objectives is harmful. Rooney isn’t Michael Owen – he was a much better participant on his debut for the England staff.”
Thuram poked the bear with these pre-match feedback.
Rooney later admitted that he made a psychological be aware of them – and, Rooney being Rooney, he was by no means going to let it relaxation there.
Within the second half in opposition to France, in an uncharacteristically untidy passage of play from him on the evening, Rooney stumbled over the ball twice in fast succession. What occurred subsequent was extra calculated. Thuram stepped in to make a problem however Rooney, holding out his proper arm, noticed the defender coming.
“I simply banged proper into his jaw after which I appeared again at him as if to say: ‘Now who I’m.’”
(PAUL BARKER/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
Thuram was 14 years his senior and one of the distinguished defenders on the earth on the time. However Rooney didn’t care one bit about that.
When he recalled the incident in 2022, half a lifetime later, Rooney mentioned that he may nonetheless see the expression on Thuram’s face. “The worry of considering: ‘What am I going to do right here?’”
Little greater than 10 minutes later, David Beckham hooked a protracted ball in direction of the left flank, the place Rooney was stationed near the midway line. With Thuram closing in on him, Rooney nonchalantly lifted the ball over the centre-back’s head and accelerated away, leaving him in his wake. As Rooney bore down on objective, Silvestre got here throughout and scythed him down for a stonewall penalty. It was unimaginable to look at. Rooney was single-handedly tormenting France.
(Ross Kinnaird/Getty Photographs)
The belief has all the time been that Thuram was disrespectful in direction of Rooney earlier than the sport, displaying an ignorance bordering on vanity with these dismissive remarks about him, however Olivier Dacourt insists that was not the case.
In accordance with Dacourt, Thuram had the identical mindset as Benoit Assou-Ekotto, the ex-Tottenham Hotspur full-back who paid little consideration to something to do with soccer aside from when he was working round with a pair of shoes on.
“If Lilian, Lilian doesn’t comply with soccer, he doesn’t care,” Dacourt says. “He’s following soccer now along with his youngsters (Thuram’s two sons are professionals), however on the time he didn’t also have a tv at residence.
“I keep in mind the primary time he met Jean-Alain Boumsong (the previous Rangers and Newcastle defender), he didn’t know who he was!”
Dacourt, who got here on as a late substitute for France within the England recreation, breaks into laughter.
“Lilian mentioned, ‘Who is that this man?’ I needed to introduce the 2 of them – it was with the nationwide staff. Are you able to think about that?
“So Lilian wasn’t being disrespectful (in direction of Rooney). It was simply that he didn’t know.”
Both manner, Rooney was within the temper to depart an indelible mark on anybody who crossed his path at Euro 2004. He had hearth in these iconic Nike Whole 90 boots and welcomed confrontation.
(Shaun Botterill/Getty Photographs)
“There’s a well-known Elbow music, ‘Lippy Youngsters’, and Wayne was that lippy child,” Tyldesley says. “I’m certain that’s what the opponents noticed. He had that mischief in his eyes the place he wished you to recollect him past the sport.”
Crucially, Rooney additionally had the expertise and the physicality to again it up.
“At 16, Wayne Rooney was in a person’s physique, and he knew tips on how to put that physique round,” Heskey provides. “You wouldn’t have believed his age. He was like that darts participant.”
Luke Littler, who reached the World Darts Championship closing in January on the age of 16, might effectively recognize that comparability greater than Rooney, however you get the purpose that Heskey is making an attempt to make. Sir Alex Ferguson wrote in his autobiography that each one Manchester United’s “intelligence about Wayne Rooney as an Evertonian schoolboy might be condensed right into a single phrase. This was a person enjoying in under-age soccer.”
Tyldesley nods. “You nearly must look again at footage from that period to recollect what Wayne Rooney appeared like at 18. He was battle-ready when he was first enlisted as a result of not solely was he a gifted avenue footballer, however he was streetwise with a bullish physicality.
“And having lived on Merseyside for 15 years and acquired somewhat perception – and I stress somewhat – into how completely different that metropolis is from most within the UK, I’ve all the time been of the conclusion that the concept of going through (Patrick) Vieira and Thuram within the opening recreation of a serious championship was one thing that he may soak up his stride as a result of he’d in all probability seen extra scary issues on his manner residence from college in Croxteth. And I hope that doesn’t sound dismissive in direction of Merseyside, as a result of (his upbringing) was the making of him.”
Finally, Rooney’s efforts in opposition to France have been in useless. Beckham’s spot kick was saved and England, who had been main by Frank Lampard’s first-half header, pressed the self-destruct button in added time, when Zidane scored twice, first with an beautiful free kick after which with a penalty following Gerrard’s blind backpass.
A minimum of England didn’t must look too far for a silver lining in defeat – everybody was speaking about Rooney, together with the French.
“A form of new Paul Gascoigne,” L’Equipe mentioned of their participant rankings. “The irascible 18-year-old confirmed monumental combating spirit.”
Naturally, the French sports activities paper nonetheless solely gave Rooney 6.5 out of 10.
Bruno Berner shakes his head. “I nonetheless can’t consider that these guys didn’t obtain something,” the previous Switzerland worldwide says.
“Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham… it appears unattainable. It was a world-class English staff and now you have got a younger lad coming by the ranks with unbelievable starvation. That is what I keep in mind with Rooney.
“All of us noticed him in his first Premier League video games. So we, because the Swiss nationwide staff, didn’t for one minute underestimate an 18-year-old Wayne Rooney.”
Switzerland have been up subsequent for England and Rooney carried on the place he left off in opposition to France, solely this time he added objectives to his recreation too. The primary was a header that created historical past as he grew to become the youngest goalscorer within the European Championship finals, and the second was a shot that hit the submit and went in off the again of the pinnacle of the Switzerland keeper Jorg Stiel.
(Mark Leech/Offside by way of Getty Photographs)
In a staff of A-listers, Rooney was working the present and enjoying with extraordinary self-belief. “I keep in mind in that event, at 18, considering to myself, ‘I’m the perfect participant on the earth, there’s nobody higher than me.’ And I consider at the moment I used to be.”
Berner smiles. “I can effectively think about he would say that. He was simply stuffed with confidence and he delivered.
“He didn’t care who was in entrance of him on the pitch, he took the shortest method to the objective. That is what we noticed, or I noticed, at the moment. However you’ll be able to solely try this if you end up completely fearless. Not boastful. Fearless.”
Rooney’s second objective in opposition to Croatia, in England’s third group recreation, was a living proof. He performed a one-two with Owen, sprinted clear from simply contained in the Croatia half and also you knew – you simply knew – that he would rating. Direct and lethal, he glanced in direction of one nook and swept the ball into the opposite.
By that stage, Rooney had already drilled in a shot from exterior the field and arrange a objective for Paul Scholes.
🏴🆚🇭🇷 EURO 2004 version: Two Wayne Rooney objectives helped England to a 4-2 victory in Lisbon within the group stage… #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/4FBqU4vEJF
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) June 13, 2021
“His motion, his velocity… he was not human,” Dario Simic, the Croatia right-back, says. “He was a beast – like out of a movie the place you see somebody who’s simply naturally so sturdy with out going to the gymnasium.”
England have been by to the quarter-finals and Roo-mania was now sweeping throughout the nation. “HEROO”, yelled the Every day Mirror entrance web page.
A Portugal aspect that includes a core of gamers from the Porto staff that had simply gained the Champions League, in addition to Luis Figo and a teenage Cristiano Ronaldo, have been up subsequent.
The host nation can be troublesome opponents however England have been buoyant after scoring seven objectives of their earlier two matches. On prime of that, that they had the standout participant within the event to this point.
What may presumably go mistaken?
A fractured metatarsal, that’s what.
Operating for a ball alongside Jorge Andrade, Rooney misplaced his boot after the Portugal defender by accident trod on his foot. Rooney tried to hold on however winced as quickly as he began working and dropped to the ground moments later. He had heard a crack.
(Laurence Griffiths/Getty Photographs)
Gary Lewin, England’s physio, feared the worst immediately. “I keep in mind there’s an image of him on the ground and I’m speaking to Sven and I mentioned to Sven: ‘This might be his metatarsal. I’m involved.’ I feel he tried it… what Wazza is like, ‘Let me get on with it.’ However he knew himself,” Lewin says.
The sport was lower than half an hour outdated and Rooney’s Euro 2004 was over. He was devastated and so have been England’s gamers. “It was a type of moments that breaks your focus, breaks your rhythm, breaks every little thing in a recreation – seeing your talisman strolling off the pitch,” Owen advised the BBC of their World at His Toes documentary.
Not surprisingly, it galvanised Portugal. “We have been relieved, in fact. I’m not going to lie,” says Costinha, the previous Portuguese midfielder. “Rooney was an incredible participant.
“On the similar time, whenever you play for the nationwide staff and play within the greatest competitions, you all the time wish to play in opposition to the perfect gamers as a result of that’s the best way you enhance.
“Nevertheless it was higher for us that he was out of the sport. He gave us somewhat little bit of relaxation in defence when he went off.
“When you have got different gamers like (Darius) Vassell and Heskey within the assault, their strengths. However when you have got an 18-year-old like Rooney, who’s an absolute expertise, generally these gamers are unpredictable. He was very troublesome to mark and management.”
Rooney watched the remainder of the sport, which Portugal gained on penalties, from a hospital mattress, desirous about what may need been.
Fifteen years later, as his enjoying profession got here to a detailed, his view hadn’t modified. “The shape I used to be in, the boldness I had, if I stayed match I consider we’d have gained,” Rooney advised Gary Neville, his former England and Manchester United team-mate, in an interview on Sky Sports activities.
What we didn’t know then – and what we couldn’t have believed then – is that Rooney would by no means come near reprising that kind for England at a serious event once more.
As a substitute, there have been badly-timed accidents, a crimson card, arguments with England followers, humiliating exits and, maybe greater than something, inconsistent performances – from Rooney in addition to his team-mates.
So does that imply that Euro 2004 was prime Rooney?
“No, I’d say that was Rooney given freedom,” Heskey replies. “It was off the cuff – you’re simply enjoying. Once you’re older you are likely to play inside a technique and the ways of the staff. However when he was youthful it was simply: ‘Give me the ball and let me do what I do.’”
Carragher agrees. “I don’t assume that was Rooney at his peak. There’s little question he grew to become a greater participant – he had a few seasons at Manchester United the place he was the perfect participant within the Premier League. However there’s additionally little question it was his greatest event and his standout second in an England shirt.
“I feel Euro 2004 was Rooney with the world not figuring out an excessive amount of about him, and him not considering an excessive amount of about soccer. As he acquired older and acquired extra mature, he would have thought in regards to the recreation extra, he would have considered what a giant recreation means, the expectation stage. However I feel this was a participant who, as you mentioned earlier than, didn’t give a f*** mainly, and that was a avenue footballer.”
(Photographs: Getty Photographs/Design: Eamonn Dalton)
