Naz Majeed 

What is your favourite Wayne Rooney goal? Is it his venomous volley against Newcastle? The swerving long-range stunner against West Ham? That devastating counter two-man counter-attack alongside Cristiano Ronaldo? The record-breaking freekick against Stoke? That lob against Portsmouth? His free-kick that sealed his debut hat-trick? Or the overhead kick in the Manchester Derby that was voted Premier League Goal of the Decade?

That one single player has had so many great moments (not to mention assists and other all-round performances) is quite a staggering feat, matched only by a select few in the history of the game.

Yet Rooney is perhaps unique and alone in the sport as being objectively one of the greatest players in the modern era, celebrated and canonized, yet at times criticized and castigated like no other. An undoubted cult hero, who polarized opinion at United like no other. 

Manchester United’s record goalscorer arrived at Old Trafford full of promise after a breakthrough 2004 season for Everton, followed by a stunning performance for England at the European Championships in Portugal, where he was named in the Team of the Tournament. Picking up an injury at the tournament, Rooney’s debut was delayed until the end of September, where he made his mark with three goals and an assist against Turkish side Fenerbahce in the Champions League.

A quite special first impression, but it would only be the start for the “Assassin-faced Baby”.

Wearing the No. 8 shirt and playing alongside Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Roy Keane, and a certain Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney finished the season as United’s top scorer, a feat he would repeat in 6 of his 13 seasons at the club.

Brave and brash, Rooney would quickly become United’s talisman, injecting pace, power, and passion into a side that had always been filled with talent but had struggled to compete with the last great Arsenal side under Arsene Wenger, and the first great Chelsea side under Jose Mourinho.

It was Rooney that would act as both catalyst and conductor, even at the age of 18, carrying the burden of being the most expensive teenager in world football at the time.

But he prospered and progressed, and after a League Cup success in 2005/06 came a Premier League title in 2006/07, alongside barnstorming performances in the Champions League, most notably in games against AS Roma and AC Milan.

Van Nistelrooy had departed by now, and Rooney was well and truly United’s main man upfront, though it was during this same season that Cristiano Ronaldo would demonstrate his own goal-scoring prowess, though alongside other attackers (including Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the on-loan Henrik Larsson) the two superstars dovetailed brilliantly throughout the season.

While suffering from injuries in 2008, Rooney nonetheless was able to help United to another Premier League title, as well as the Champions League, with United’s front three of Rooney, Ronaldo, and the newly-arrived Carlos Tevez proving too much to handle for most sides they encountered. 

Always a hard runner and willing worker, Rooney would by now be used in a variety of roles for United, with the Englishman often drifting to the wing for the benefit of Tevez or increasingly, Ronaldo. His exploits were still recognized and revered, of course, even if at the end of the day it was not his name on the scoresheet, with fans and pundits alike full of praise for the forward.

Rooney would later win the Golden Ball at the Club World Cup, scoring the winner in the Final, shortly after becoming the youngest player to reach 200 Premier League appearances at the age of 23. Still, alongside Ronaldo, the pair continued to work well together, securing yet another Premier League title, with Rooney’s finest performance that season coming in a breathtaking comeback victory against Tottenham Hotspur, where he scored or created every United goal to pull them back from 2-0 down to win 5-2.

Ronaldo would depart for Real Madrid at the end of the season, but once more Rooney would step up, scoring 34 goals in all competitions despite suffering an ankle injury in March.

With Antonio Valencia supplying a steady stream of crosses and Dimitar Berbatov dropping deep, Rooney would for the first time in years be playing as the focal point of United’s attack and repaid the faith that Sir Alex Ferguson showed in him, including bagging his 100th goal for the club and scoring the winning goal in the League Cup Final.

Not halfway into his spell at United, and the evidence was already overwhelming for Rooney to be considered a club legend, but here is where things turned ugly.

Early in the 2010/11 season, Sir Alex Ferguson would publicly reveal that Rooney wanted to leave the club, the player’s camp stating it was due to “ambition” while fans believed it was a cash-grab. While quickly resolved, the incident would linger long in the minds of the Old Trafford faithful, especially as it would be repeated.

That sour note was, however, obliterated when Rooney would score an overhead kick against Manchester City in February, before later scoring his 100th Premier League goal for United, becoming only the third player to do so, after Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes.

He would also score in the 2011 Champions League Final, but United would lose to Barcelona again, unable to find a way around Pep Guardiola’s Cruyffian revolution. Still, Rooney and his side would celebrate another Premier League winner’s medal.

Despite scoring another 34 goals in all competitions the following year including a crucial goal on the final day of the season, Rooney would see United lose the Premier League in the most dramatic of circumstances, though the 2011/12 season would see Rooney bag his 150th goal for United, before bagging his 163rd and 164th for the club against Manchester City in the FA Cup. His 350th game for United came soon after, and it was marked by two goals against Liverpool.

2012/13 would see Rooney once more cite United’s lack of ambition, fueling another wave of transfer speculation, with many believing he was close to betraying all of Old Trafford to sign for Manchester City. The deal looked all but done at one point, until Sir Alex Ferguson pulled off a coup of his own, snatching Robin Van Persie from Arsenal, and at once demonstrating the ambition that Rooney claimed was missing, and laying down a marker that Rooney was no longer indispensable.

Rooney’s (and United’s) last Premier League title came at the end of the season, alongside the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson. In the years to come Rooney would outlast Van Persie, along the way scoring his 253rd goal for the club, putting him top of United’s all-time list of goalscorers. With 559 he is 6th in the list of most appearances for the club, and before he would leave for Everton in 2017 Rooney would also help United to FA Cup, League Cup, and Europa League victories.

As the old adage goes, Rooney was both a great goalscorer and a scorer of great goals for United, with some of those goals crucial and era-defining. He can boast 5 Premier League titles, a Champions League and Europa League medal, 5 Premier League Player of the Month awards, two PFA Young Player of the Year awards, one Premier League Player of the Season award, and being named in the PFA Team of the Year on three separate occasions. Also England’s top scorer, and captain for club and country, is there truly anything more than can be asked of Wayne Rooney?

Some United fans would say yes, their memories of Rooney tainted by the handful of occasions where he challenged the sanctity of the club as an institution. No United fan would mind his red cards and dismissals, the suspensions he incurred for swearing into cameras or disrespecting officials, but it was his attempt to leave, to abandon the club, to betray the badge that irked and offended and hurt the fans.

Some have never forgiven him, and some never will, even though he is by all accounts a legendary figure. It is this simple, somewhat illogical fact that perhaps makes Wayne Rooney, Manchester United’s highest scoring player, perhaps the most underrated cult hero of all time.