Wayne Rooney completed a high-profile move to Manchester United on this day in 2004.
After bursting onto the scene as a 16-year-old with his boyhood club Everton and playing a starring role at Euro 2004, Rooney became one of the most sought-after players in Europe.
He would leave Goodison Park for Old Trafford, with the Red Devils forking out £27million to make the then 18-year-old the most expensive teenager in world football.
Sir Alex Ferguson later said there were “plenty of eyebrows raised” when he asked the club to sanction such a big deal for a player of Rooney’s age.
Any questions would be answered on Rooney’s debut – delayed due to injury – as he made a memorable first appearance for United, hitting a hat-trick against Fenerbache in a Champions League game on September 28, 2004.
He would go on to become the club’s all-time leading goalscorer, ending his 13-year stint at Old Trafford having scored 253 goals in 559 appearances.
Rooney, who would captain United in his later years at the club, won five Premier League titles, the Champions League, the FA Cup, three League Cups, the Europa League and the Club World Cup before moving back to where it all started with a return to Everton in the summer of 2017.
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