In recent weeks there has been complete chaos in the football city Manchester. Wayne Rooney has dominated the news completely, and it has been no lack of breaking news. I will not talk about Rooney’s private life or the noise and confusion about his football future in the past week. I only know about this through the media and have therefore not enough knowledge about it, and even if I had knowledge about it, I still feel that I have no right to talk about his conserns. What I do know however, is how he is as a footballer and a private person when I meet him, and because of all the negative in the media lately I’ll come up with something positive. Therefore, this blog post will be about Rooney as the stand up guy I know him as. Firstly, he is one of the best footballers in the world. He may not have achieved his best after his ankle injury against Bayern Munich, but players like Rooney always comes back and it’s just a matter of time before he is considered the best player in the world by those who have their heart in the immediate vicinity of Old Trafford. For one thing is certain, and that is that Rooney is of such caliber that his name always come up when you are arguing about who’s the best player in the world. His drive, mentality and pure talent are second to none. That’s why Sir Alex Ferguson left the door open in the middle of all this noise. But it’s not just the football player Rooney who deserves kind words, the person Wayne is also a very nice guy. Sometimes I run into him when I’m out, and he always takes care of the people around him. One proof of this is when I and one of my best friends were out one evening. My friend is a Liverpool supporter, and when we stood there talking Rooney came over for a chat. My friend is used to famous football players and is polite, but shows no particular interest even if he stands with one of the world’s best footballers. After an hour or so while we stood and talked with Rooney my friend came with a confession I never thought I would get from him. “Rooney, he’s actually a nice guy.” And that’s right, Rooney is a pleasant and well-savvy guy that is both fun and happy, and I enjoy playing against him a few times a year.

Morten Gamst Pedersen