Former Manchester United star player Wayne Rooney who is England’s record goalscorer has come out to reveal how overcame pressure during his playing time. The 36-year-old opened up about the impact of going from growing up on a Liverpool council estate to becoming a superstar of English football.
He said: “To go from that to having to deal with becoming a Premier League player at 16 and an international player was something I wasn’t prepared for.” Rooney made his Premier League debut at the teenage age of 16 for Everton, and he played and scored for England at 17 and hit a Champions League hat-trick on his debut for Manchester United at 18 after a £27m move.
He said: “I had never even thought about the other side of being a football player. I wasn’t prepared for that part of life.” “It took a long time for me to get used to that and figure out how to deal with it. It was like being thrown in somewhere where you are just not comfortable. That was tough for me.”
Wayne Rooney said in his early years at Manchester United before he had his first son who is now playing in United academy Kai Rooney, he would lock himself away and never go out and all he was doing was just drinking alcohol. He also said, sometimes he takes some days off from football completely just to manage the pressure from stardom.
Wayne Rooney said things have changed as before now people hardly come out to talk about what they are going through but now people are more empowered to speak about what they are going through unlike before. He said then, there was no way he could just go into the dressing room and start speaking of what his going through. Rooney said then you would be suffering internally and not be able to speak out.