Wayne Rooney, one of the best English soccer players over the last 20 years, has announced his retirement, and will become the new manager of Derby County according to Ben Fisher of The Guardian on Friday. The length of the contract is interesting as Rooney has formed an agreement with Derby for the next two and a half years. Normally professional sports contracts are for full years, and do not have the half a year component to them.
Rooney, a native of Liverpool, England, is 35 years old. The midfielder actually played 35 games for Derby County over the last two seasons and had seven goals. It should be noted that Derby County is not in the English Premier League, but in the second-tier division, which is known as the English Football League Championship. In the 24-team league, Derby County has got off to a slow start this season as they have a record of four wins, 11 losses, and eight draws for 20 points. They are in 21st place, and 30 points back of the league-leading Norwich City.
During his playing career, Rooney was an instrumental part of England’s success on the international stage. He had 53 goals in 120 games. However only one of his 53 goals actually came in the World Cup. That was in a 2-1 England loss to Uruguay at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. During the match in Sao Paulo, England had a tough time containing Uruguay star Luis Suarez, who scored twice. With the losses to Uruguay and Italy, England failed to get out of Group D.
Rooney also scored six goals in European championship action. At Euro 2004 in Portugal, Rooney had two two-goal games in a 3-0 England win over Switzerland, and in a 4-2 England win over Croatia.
At the club level, Rooney starred for Manchester United, where he had 183 goals in 393 games from 2004 to 2017. He also had 25 goals in 98 games with Everton, and 23 goals in 48 games with D.C. United of Major League Soccer from 2018 to 2020.
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