The 18-year-old made a strong entrance announcement against Fenerbahce.
This day in 2004, Wayne Rooney had a memorable debut for Manchester United against Fenerbahce by scoring a hat-trick in the Champions League.
Having paid Everton £27 million for the teenager’s services, Sir Alex Ferguson had been waiting for his foot injury to heal before using him.
Rooney needed 17 minutes to open his account, but in that time, he scored twice with brilliant shots from well beyond the area. His first goal came 11 minutes later.
Nine minutes after the half, the 18-year-old completed his trifecta with a free-kick that flew into the net. He saved the best for last.
After the game, Ferguson attempted to downplay Rooney’s accomplishment by stating, “It’s a great start for him.” We signed him because of his tremendous potential.
To be honest, though, I would much prefer chat about the game. Remember that he is still a young boy, only eighteen.
“You could anticipate it, since it was his first game since the European Championship, but he clearly exhausted in the last 20 minutes. He can only get stronger, in my opinion.
In my opinion as a coach, it’s critical to let the boy grow organically without drawing undue attention from the media. His goal should be to be as normal as possible.
Naturally, there was going to be hype, and Rooney was the talk of the town for his entire 13-year tenure at Old Trafford.
Prior to departing the team in 2017, he scored 253 goals to become United’s all-time top goalscorer.