Wayne Rooney has witnessed everything and taken part in everything-the highs, the lows, and the moments that resonate for life-in Manchester derbies. One of the more shocking from the list must have been after the 6-1 humiliation suffered at the hands of Manchester City in October 2011, during the Sir Alex Ferguson reign.
Rooney reminisced about that fateful night with former City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips during the latest edition of his BBC podcast, The Wayne Rooney Show. This Sunday, City hosts United (16:30 BST) for the first time after the international break.
”Get me off this pitch”
One of the more memorable Manchester derbies happened to be City’s 6-1 victory at Old Trafford.
Rooney said:
“I think that was a big moment for City back then because you could feel City coming up and getting closer to us. But to come to Old Trafford and win 6-1, I think that was a statement. I remember being on the pitch, it was horrible. It was like in the second half, just felt like it was goal after goal, and you’re just like, ‘oh, get me off this pitch’.”
Despite the humiliation, Rooney had commitments off the pitch. He explained:
“After something like that I’d usually just go home. But I had a birthday party. Joe Hart, Gareth Barry and a few of the City players were invited to my birthday party. You’ve got family, friends, everyone who’s made their own plans to come. I was like, ‘I can’t cancel it’ so I went. We’ve got the United lads, some of the City lads sat there. I think it was me, Crouchy [Peter Crouch], Harty [Joe Hart] – we all got up and did Backstreet Boys. Looking back, I should have cancelled, but it was the friends and family who’d all booked the time off and got the babysitters and stuff.”
‘I was so bad in that game’ the overhead kick
Months before that defeat, Rooney produced one of the most iconic Premier League goals in a derby, his famous overhead kick that secured a late 2-1 win over City in February 2011. The goal went on to win the Premier League Goal of the 20 Seasons award in 2012.
Rooney admitted:
“I was so bad in that game. It’s one of the worst games I’ve ever played. I couldn’t control the ball. I think it’s more of an iconic goal because it’s the derby, you score and win the game 2-1. But you don’t practise overhead kicks.”
Rooney also highlighted another favorite derby memory: United’s 1-0 win over City in 2007, secured by a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty, which helped them edge closer to the Premier League title.
Rooney said,
“The next day we won the league, We obviously all met up and went out. But I think we knew if we won that game [against City], we won the league.”
Rooney & Wright-Phillips discuss footballing families
The podcast also explored the pressures of footballing families. Wright-Phillips shared insights from his own experience, having a football legend as a father, Ian Wright, and watching his son D’Margio navigate the professional game:
“A lot of people see you and just expect you to be as good as him or play the same way as him. I got a lot of stick growing up from parents and all the rest of it, and I know my daughter’s been getting it recently at 11 already from parents. She’s been getting booed off the pitch when she’s come off injured. I just tell her, I’ve always told them, ‘just play your game’. Answer all the questions with your football. Don’t have a reaction that everybody’s expecting you to react to, which is normally taking your focus away from what you’re actually meant to be doing.”
He added context on D’Margio’s career journey:
“He did actually really well at Stoke. And then the manager changes. It becomes a bit tricky. And now he’s learning how to deal with the downside of football, which a lot of kids don’t see. A lot of kids just think you play football, you’re going to play all the time and you’re going to live the high life. So he ended up going on loan, helped Beerschot get promoted to the championship, and had a terrible season last year in terms of being injured. So mentally he didn’t know how to deal with it.
And now the new coach has come in and they want him off the books and now he’s learning to deal with something else to do with football. And there’s something he has to grow up and deal with because there’s only some things that me as a dad and as an ex-footballer can help him with.”
Rooney also spoke about the added pressure on his own son, Kai, who is playing in Manchester United’s Under-18 Premier League team at just 15:
“There’s a bit more pressure on them as well. Kai and [when Cristiano] Ronaldo came back, Ronaldo’s lads and Michael Carrick’s lad were all on the same team. You go and watch and then all of a sudden there’s like 10 times the amount of people that’s normally there, all around the pitch watching, so there’s a lot more pressure because they’re coming to watch the three kids to see how they play and stuff. They’ve got to be ready.”
