David Beckham may have the glamor, the good looks and the globally recognised name, but it’s his teammate Wayne Rooney — stocky, unpolished, and 18 years old — who has the soccer world swooning.
The teenager from the working-class city of Liverpool couldn’t be further from Beckham’s world of fashion, marketing, big money and paparazzi. Unwieldy cartwheels after goals are about as demonstrative as he gets.
But with four goals in three games, he is the top scorer at the European Championship, stealing the limelight normally focused on Beckham and earning perhaps premature comparisons in the British press to Brazilian legend Pele.
British newspapers have focused on Rooney all week. After his two goals in England’s 4-2 win over Croatia on Monday, his image appeared on every front page except for one final holdout – the Financial Times.
”We’re Throo,” cried The Sun. ”Heroo!” said The Mirror, with the Daily Star adding ”Rooney Rampage” to the heap of hyperbole.
The less brash broadsheets were similar in praise: ”Wayne again: teenager fires England into quarterfinals,” wrote The Guardian.
”Inspired, untouchable … is he unbeatable?” pondered the Times.
From Japan to Germany, Thailand to Spain, Beckham’s face adorns huge billboards in the service of sunglasses, drinks and razors.
His wife Victoria is a former pop singer with the Spice Girls and together the two are constant tabloid fodder as the top celebrity couple in England.
Their luxury home in southern England is nicknamed ”Beckingham Palace.”
Rooney, meanwhile, has recently moved out of his parents’ house in a gritty suburb in the northern port city of Liverpool to live nearby with his childhood sweetheart and fiancée, 18-year-old aspiring actress Colleen McLoughlin.
She missed his England debut in February last year because she was appearing in a school play. Leaving school early, McLoughlin is trying her best to keep up with the likes of Victoria and the other glamorous wives and girlfriends of the England squad in Portugal.
With the photogenic Colleen, Rooney has appeared in a soft drink commercial and his face appears on packets of potato chips promoting Euro 2004.
But the glamour shots aren’t likely to come rolling in.
”In an age when even the world of sport often seems obsessed with image, the rough and ready Rooney looks like a public relations man’s nightmare,” columnist Mick Hume wrote in the Times of London.
”After Beckham’s glossy adverts for fizzy drinks and razors were televised… Rooney popped up to be interviewed looking as if he had been drinking meths [methylated spirits] and not shaved for a week. What can they use that face to sell? Potatoes?”
He is starting to sell papers, though.
According to tabloid newspapers, Rooney and McLoughlin were escorted by police from a recent family party after their parents, cousins and uncles engaged in a drunken brawl. Although no arrests were made, Rooney was reportedly so angry afterward that he punched a wall.
An oft-published photo of Rooney shows the portly player trudging out of the sea flanked by his chubby parents, with their heads simultaneously looking down at the sand.
Faced with the world’s press at Euro 2004, Rooney has emerged unpolished — but also unfazed.
Beginning virtually every sentence with ”eeem,” Rooney speaks in short phrases adorned with a strong Liverpool accent, rarely focusing on his own achievements.
His down-to-earth demeanor could be disrupted by a possible move to London’s Chelsea from Everton. Rooney has supported Everton since he was a child — when he went for a trial at rival club Liverpool, known as the Reds, he wore Everton’s blue jersey.
He made his mark at 16, with a long-range strike to end Arsenal’s 30-game unbeaten run. He beat Michael Owen’s record as England’s youngest pro player and then as England’s youngest goalscorer.
The price tag on Rooney’s head has grown to £50-million — a massive amount in the depressed soccer transfer market.
That’s double the amount Real Madrid paid for no less a star than Beckham last August.
Beckham had a mixed debut season in Spain, but unlike Rooney he hasn’t redeemed his season on the international stage. His family-man image was also tarnished by rumors of infidelity that Beckham called ”ludicrous” — but never denied.
He remains the most recognisable member of the England team in Portugal. His name is chanted by schoolchildren at practice and the paparazzi take pictures of him in his underwear on his hotel balcony.
But when he meets the press, Beckham, accustomed to fielding questions about his free kicks and endorsement deals, has been reduced to answering reporters questions about Rooney. — Sapa