How Wayne Rooney wrote Everton transfer request in canteen before Manchester United move and became club legend – will Jadon Sancho do similar?
Wayne Rooney was the teenage sensation who went on to be a Manchester United legend.
The Croxeth-born striker announced himself to the Premier League as a 16-year-old with Everton when he scored a spectacular last-minute winner against Arsenal in 2002.
Arsene Wenger dubbed him ‘the greatest young English talent I have ever seen’.
It was a sign of things to come for Rooney.
He was Everton through and through. He grew up supporting the blue team in Merseyside, joined their academy at the age of nine and quickly progressed through their youth ranks to become their youngest scorer in history.
Rooney excelled at Euro 2004 where he scored four goals before getting injured in the quarter-final defeat to Portugal.
He was named in the team of the tournament and it was clear his future was destined to bigger and better things than Everton.
The Toffees were cash strapped at the time and a deal to Manchester United seemed inevitable.
Rooney actually handed in a transfer request written in the club’s canteen, which he handed to then manager David Moyes.
Rooney told Amazon Prime Video: "I'm an ambitious person and I want to win trophies. I knew staying at Everton for another year, another two years... that wasn't going to happen.
"I felt I was good enough to go into the Manchester United team so I was ready to move. To be honest I was ready to move the year before but that didn't happen.
"I went in to David Moyes and told him this is the situation and in fairness Everton needed the money.
"I think deep down he knew so I went in and told him I wanted to leave and he said, 'If you want to leave, you'll have to put a transfer request in.'
"So I said 'okay' and went out into the canteen, wrote a transfer request out on a piece of paper and said, 'Here you go.'
"When I got in the Everton first team, I knew I was the best player.
"That's not being cocky... plus we had a very bad team at the time. I knew I was the best player and I knew before long I would have to move on if I wanted to win trophies."
A deal was completed with Manchester United for £25.6million in 2004, which at the time was the highest fee ever paid for a player under 20.
Sir Alex Ferguson admitted ‘there were plenty of eyebrows raised’ for the price paid for the 18-year-old.
“I am very excited. I think we have got the best young player this country has seen in the past 30 years," Ferguson said on the day of Rooney's arrival.
"Everyone is delighted by this signing.
"I can see Wayne having the same impact as Eric (Cantona) had on the team when I signed him.”
The signing paid dividends.
He went on to break numerous Manchester United, Premier League and England records.
Rooney overtook Bobby Charlton’s goalscoring records for both United and England.
He also holds the record for most Premier League goals scored for one club (183), most away goals (94) and most seasons reaching double figures (12).
During his time at Old Trafford he won everything at domestic level there was to win. This included five Premier League titles, three League Cups, the FA Cup, Champions League, Europa League and Club World Cup.
Life was not always rosy at Old Trafford between Rooney and Ferguson as the pair notoriously clashed but there was a huge amount of respect.
“His man-management is the best I’ve ever seen,” Rooney said in an interview earlier this year. “I always remember as a kid, every half-time arguing with him. Constantly. I remember thinking: ‘Why’s he keep having a go at me? There’s players far worse than what I’ve been.’
“But the older you get, you realise why he’s doing it. He would have a go at me for dribbling, which I very rarely … well, I dribbled a bit more then.
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“But for [players such as] Nani, it would just maybe trigger something in their head, make them think: ‘Maybe I shouldn’t dribble as much.’ If he [Sir Alex] spoke to Nani the way he spoke to me, he’d break down in tears. He [Nani] wouldn’t be able to come back out.”
Ferguson publicly criticised Rooney in 2010 when he wanted to leave the club. There were even reports suggesting the former England international handed in a transfer request but he later denied that.
He ended up staying another six seasons, even after Ferguson had retired, before returning to his boyhood club Everton for a last hurrah in the Premier League.
Two seasons followed in the MLS before he returned to the UK where he took up a player/coach role at Championship Derby.
His future now appears to be in management and only time will tell if he will have the same kind of success as he did a player.
Manchester United are always looking for the next player that could make a similar impact at Old Trafford that Rooney did.
It's a tough task trying to find someone to compare with the club's record goalscorer and more than 200 Premier League goals to his name.
Jadon Sancho is another young English star with enormous potential. He's got bags of goals and assists with Borussia Dortmund and has been linked with the Red Devils.
United have not been title contenders since Ferguson left but Sancho could be the missing piece that fires them back into contention.