Wayne Rooney would have signed for Newcastle United on one condition.
Indeed, Newcastle United made a bid to sign Rooney in 2004 following his stunning rise to fame while still a youngster at Everton.
Rooney made headlines with a famous goal against Arsenal while still a 16-year-old back in October 2002.
The forward was tipped as the greatest talent English football had produced in generations and eventually joined Manchester United in 2004 fresh from his stunning exploits at that year’s European Championship.
He would go on to win every major trophy in the club game while breaking scoring records for both Manchester United and England.
Rooney is now synonymous with the Red Devils but has now admitted he would actually have moved to St James’ Park instead.
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Wayne Rooney would have joined Newcastle if Manchester United delayed
The 40-year-old was discussing Newcastle’s interest in him during a recording of his BBC Sport podcast.
He revealed that Manchester United actually wanted to wait an extra year before signing him. If they had their way, Rooney would have arrived at Old Trafford in 2005.
Staying at Everton, however, seemingly wasn’t an option. Rooney has now claimed he would have joined Newcastle in that event, rather than choosing to stay at Goodison Park.
“Manchester United wanted to wait a season and sign me the year after I did sign and Newcastle put a bid in,” he said.
“If Man United didn’t come in, I would have went to Newcastle.”
Wayne Rooney wanted to play under Sir Bobby Robson at Newcastle United
Rooney has previously revealed he wanted to play under Sir Bobby Robson at Newcastle, such was the respect he had for the former England manager.
“He was such a gentleman and it would’ve been great to play for him,” he told Amazon Prime in March.
“I wanted the number nine [shirt], [Alan] Shearer wouldn’t give me it!”
Robson was sacked in August 2004 following a poor start to the Premier League campaign but things could well have been different had Rooney signed.
The idea that Rooney could have paired Alan Shearer at St James’ Park would have been seriously exciting at the time.
Had he arrived, it’s hard to imagine the club would ever have signed Michael Owen from Real Madrid a year later. The Owen experiment, of course, did not go well for Newcastle.
It’s fascinating to imagine what could have happened if Rooney did join Newcastle.
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