Wayne Rooney could still be punished retrospectively for choosing his cleats in a Premier League match in 2006.
Until the end of his professional career, he had always worn “the old plastic studs with the metal tip”. But when he took on league leaders Chelsea FC in April 2006, Wayne Rooney had a change of heart.
“We knew if Chelsea won that day they would be champions,” Rooney told the Daily Mail at the weekend. And because he had known from the start “that they were going to win that game because they were just a better team at the time”, he had changed his studs for once.
“I wanted to try to hurt someone, to hurt someone “
“I changed them for big, long ones made of metal – the maximum length you could have – because I wanted to try and hurt someone, hurt someone,” Rooney continued. “The studs were legal, but if it came to a one-on-one, I just wanted to go in really hard. And that’s what I did. “
In the end – Chelsea had won 3-0 and were champions – his questionable plan was successful: “John Terry left the stadium on crutches. I left a hole in his foot,” recalls Rooney, then 20, now 36. “That’s why I signed my shirt for him after the game – and sent it to him a few weeks afterwards, asking him to give me my stud back. “
Keane was prosecuted retrospectively in 2002, but the circumstances were different
For the English Football Association, it’s all no joke, even nearly 16 years later. According to English media reports, they have asked Rooney, currently coach of second division club Derby County, to comment on the interview statements. England’s record goal scorer may have to fear late consequences.
In 2002, Roy Keane was retrospectively banned because he had written in his biography that he had deliberately injured ManCity professional Alf Inge Haaland – Erling’s father. However, the circumstances at that time were completely different from Rooney’s: the game in question was only a year ago, Keane was still active, and Haaland had to end his career as a result of the injury he suffered.
