There have been so many heartbreaking stories about former idols and football icons that haven’t been able to sustain their level through the last period of their career, harming their teams with their poor performances and eventually having to accept a smaller role if they still want to contribute to their causes.
Besides, this always represents a major issue for their bosses, who are afraid to disrespect this kind of players and refuse to send them to the bench even if they should just because they don’t want to lose credibility among their players and fans.
This was precisely the case of Wayne Rooney, who’s been having awful performances since a couple of seasons ago, but since he’s become such a major figure for Manchester United and England and he’s known for his bad boy character, managers refused to send him to the bleachers for a while.
However, his new boss isn’t afraid to mess with other guys egos being a narcissistic egomaniac himself, so after a couple of lousy performances, Jose Mourinho axed the former Everton player, something that had to be done but generated some big concerns about Rooney’s lack of playing time and how that could affect the England national team.
Rooney, who is rated at €29.7 Million by the CIES Football Observatory, has accepted his bench role with true distinction, remaining very calm and polite about the situation even despite being benched as well by Gareth Southgate in the Three Lions’ last two games.
The Red Devil captain turned 31 today and his prime is far behind him, so he needs to start to consider his options for the future, as Mourinho doesn’t seem to care about his legacy and is determined to keep him on the bench no matter what happens, and he needs to do what’s best for him, for Manchester United and for the national team.
Many players would just change teams and play for another Premier League side and there’s no doubt that at least half the teams in the league would love the striker to play for them. However, given Rooney’s history at Manchester United and his past at Everton make the possibility of him wearing another shirt in the UK really unlikely.
His other options would be the more lucrative, yet way less demanding tournaments, such as India, Qatar, the MLS or the new favorite of former standouts: the Chinese superleague, where money just seems to fall off the trees. According to the reports from Mirror, the former England boss Sven Goran-Eriksson is set to make the proposal for Rooney to join Shanghai SIPG on an £80m deal. Furthermore, the same source has mentioned that a lucrative offer of a £500,000-a-week deal – plus commercial bonuses – was made to Rooney and his advisors 10 months ago, but the 31-year-old decided to stay with the Devils.
This possibility would make a lot of sense, as the Chinese investors as eager to make their tournament grow and won’t hesitate to make a huge investment to bring a world star like Wayne to their country.
Besides, there have been a lot of great players that had made the same move, so it could provide a big opportunity for Wayne to regain his confidence while making a huge profit and being the most important player in the team one more time.
It’s really sad to see things like this happen, but father time is ruthless and eventually catches up with everybody. Truth to be told, Rooney’s time seems to be getting over at Old Trafford, and it’s probably time to say goodbye to the beloved bad-boy.