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Sunny Tse

With his pace, skill and stamina, Wayne Rooney has become a legendary figure in English soccer
Wayne Rooney
Born October 24, 1985
Chinese horoscope Ox
Nationality England
Club Manchester United
Previous clubs Everton FC
Position Striker
Squad number 10
Special skills Great physical strength, pace and the will to win
10 things you need  to know about him
1 Rooney joined Everton when he was 10 years old. Everton took him on schoolboy terms and paid him a weekly salary.
2 He won the Young Player of the Year award twice. Rooney was 18 when he joined Manchester United for GBP27 million  (HK$314 million). He became the most expensive teenage player in the game's history.
3 He is the youngest-ever player to be sent off in the English Premier League. He was 17 years old at the time.
4 Rooney was given a straight red card in a quarter-final match against Portugal in the 2006 World Cup. Watch the incident at http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=C3cCsJRJII0.
5 Rooney runs about 11 to 12 kilometres in  every match.
6 In 2006, two English newspapers reported that Rooney had attacked his girlfriend, Coleen McLoughlin, in a nightclub. He sued the papers and received #100,000 in damages. He gave the money to charity.
7 Rooney signed the biggest sports book deal in history with publishers HarperCollins. He will write five books in 12 years.
8 Rooney is loved by Manchester United and England fans. He is often compared to soccer legends. He is known as El Blanco Pele (the white Pele), Roonaldo (a reference to top Brazilian striker Ronaldo) and Wazza (former England hero Paul Gascoigne was called Gazza).
9 Rooney enjoys boxing and Mike Tyson is his idol. The striker is a keen reader of the Harry Potter books. Grease is his favourite movie. He is a great fan of Welsh rock band Stereophonics. He has the title of the group's third album - Just Enough Education to Perform - tattooed on his right forearm.
10 Fellow United and England teammate Rio Ferdinand once played a joke on Rooney. He made Rooney think he had hurt a little boy's dog. See how Rooney tried to save the dog at http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=dXDDFzrnl7w



Powering ahead