Rooney made his senior international debut in 2003. He played at UEFA Euro 2004 and scored four goals. He also briefly became the competition's youngest goalscorer. He is frequently selected for the England squad and also featured at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups. Rooney has won the England Player of the Year award twice, in 2008 and 2009. As of March 2011, he has won 70 international caps and scored 26 goals.
Rooney became the youngest player to play for England when he earned his first cap in a friendly against Australia on 12 February 2003 at seventeen, the same age at which he also became the youngest player to score an England goal. Arsenal youngster Theo Walcott broke Rooney's appearance record by 36 days in May 2006.
Aged nine, Rooney joined the youth team of Everton, for whom he made his professional debut in 2002. He spent two seasons at the Merseyside club, before moving to Manchester United for £25.6 million in the 2004 summer transfer window. Since then, United have won the Premier League four times, the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League and two League Cups with Rooney in the team.
He also holds two runner-up medals from both the Premier League and the Champions League. In 2009-10, Rooney was awarded the PFA Players' Player of the Year and the FWA Footballer of the Year. As of 2011, he is the third highest-paid footballer in the world after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, with an annual income of €20.7m (£18m) including sponsorship deals.
Rooney was born in Croxteth, Liverpool to Thomas Wayne and Jeanette Marie Rooney (née Morrey). He is of Irish descent and was brought up Catholic in Croxteth with younger brothers Graeme and John; all three attended De La Salle School. He grew up supporting his local club Everton; his childhood hero was Duncan Ferguson.
In June 2007, Rooney was handed number 10, last worn by Ruud van Nistelrooy. He fractured his left metatarsal in United's opening-day goalless draw against Reading on 12 August, the same injury he had suffered to his right foot in 2004. After being sidelined for six weeks, he returned for United's 1–0 Champions League group stage win over Roma on 2 October, scoring the match's only goal.
However, barely a month into his return, Rooney injured his ankle during a training session on 9 November, and missed an additional two weeks. His first match back was against Fulham on 3 December, in which he played 70 minutes. Rooney missed a total of ten games and finished the 2007–08 season with 18 goals (12 of them in the league), as United clinched both the Premier League and the Champions League, in which they defeated league rivals Chelsea in the competition's first-ever all-English final.
On 4 October 2008 in an away win over Blackburn Rovers, Rooney became the youngest player in league history to make 200 appearances. On 14 January after scoring the only goal of the game 54 seconds into the 1–0 win over Wigan Athletic, Rooney limped off with a hamstring ailment in the eighth minute. His replacement, Carlos Tévez, was injured himself shortly after entering the game, but stayed on. Rooney was out for three weeks, missing one match apiece in the League Cup and FA Cup, along with four Premier League matches.
On 25 April 2009, Rooney scored his final league goals of the season against Tottenham. United scored five goals in the second half to come from 2–0 down to win 5–2. Rooney grabbed two goals, set up two and provided the assist that led to the penalty for United's first goal. Rooney ended the season with 20 goals in all competitions. Once again, he managed 12 goals in the league.
On 30 March 2010, during United's Champions League quarter-final first leg defeat against Bayern Munich at Munich's Allianz Arena, Rooney crumpled when he twisted his ankle in the last minute, hobbling off while Bayern were producing the build up that led to their second goal. There were fears that he had received serious ligament damage or even a broken ankle, but it was announced that the injury was only slight ligament damage, and that he would be out for 2 to 3 weeks, missing United's crunch match with Chelsea and the return leg against Munich the following week.
The team list for second leg yielded a massive surprise when Rooney was given a starting place in the United lineup. Despite a 3–0 lead by the 41st minute, Munich snatched a goal back and United were later forced down to 10 men after Rafael da Silva was sent-off. Munich won the match after netting a second away-goal and Rooney was substituted after re-damaging his ankle. On 25 April, Rooney was named the 2010 PFA Players' Player of the Year.
On 28 August 2010, Rooney scored his first goal of the season as he netted a penalty in a 3–0 home win over West Ham United. In October, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson stated at a press conference that Rooney wanted to quit the club. This came after a period of dispute as to the extent of Rooney's ankle injury, where Rooney had refuted Ferguson's claim that the injury was the reason Rooney had been dropped to the bench. Rooney and his representatives released a statement regarding his decision to leave the club, insisting it is not down to money but ambition. Following this statement, Rooney made a dramatic U-turn and agreed a new five-year contract at Manchester United until June 2015.
On 14 May 2011, Rooney successfully converted a penalty for United to equalise and give them a 1–1 draw against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park in the penultimate game of the Premier League season - enough to secure a record 19th top division title for United, and giving Rooney his fourth Premier League title winner's medal.
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