Sir Alex Ferguson, has revealed how Wayne Rooney turned down the opportunity to join Manchester United twice.
The former Red Devils manager, tried to sign Rooney when he was a teenager, but only succeeded at the third attempt in 2004 for a fee around £27million.
Jim Ryan, then director of youth football at Old Trafford, had recommended Rooney to Ferguson and the club tried to get him from when he was 14.
“Jim Ryan came back from one of our academy games at the 14 years level and he said ‘I’ve seen a player’ and he said the boy is Wayne Rooney,” Ferguson told ITV Sport.
“We tried to get him because there’s a window at the end of the season – it’s a one-week window – where we can entice or approach a boy from another club to come join your academy, but it failed.
“The boy wanted to stay at Everton – at that time he had a love of the club and he’s an Everton fan.”
United made a second bid a few weeks after Rooney made headlines, by scoring the winner against reigning champions Arsenal.
“When he got to 16, we tried again,” he added.
“We approached him to join as a 16-year-old, but once again he refused.
“Then I think everyone saw the highlights when he scored that goal against Arsenal. It confirmed exactly what Jim Ryan had said. This boy was going to be a United player.”
Rooney has spent 12 years at United, scoring 233 goals.
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