Introduction
Wayne Rooney, to near-audible sighs of relief, has finally put pen to paper on his first professional contract at Goodison Park and almost three months after Everton had hoped to tie up the deal.
The striker has signed a three-year contract – the maximum permitted for a 17-year-old – which will make him the highest paid youngster in Everton’s history and one of the richest teenagers in world football after protracted negotiations between the Premiership club and the player’s representatives.
With the thorny issue of image rights settled and a compromise reached on his wage package, the striker will now earn £13,000-a-week plus bonuses during the first year of his deal, a salary that would theoretically rise for the remaining two of the agreement. However, Everton are expected to offer Rooney a new contract in October, to be signed on his 18th birthday, when they can tie him down for a maximum of five further years.
The news will come as a relief to Everton’s fans and management, who had been left to fret as negotiations appeared to stall after Rooney burst dramatically on to the scene with a blistering 25-yard, last-minute winner to shatter Arsenal’s 30-match unbeaten Premiership record in October.
Then, Everton had hoped to sign the striker on a three-year contract and an initial salary of £8,000-a-week on October 24, his 17th birthday, with a wage review after 12 months. However, Rooney’s decision to switch agents from Peter MacIntosh to Paul Stretford’s company ProActive delayed the deal, with the former agent’s contract only expiring on December 13 and the latter’s demands for his new client initially in excess of those on offer.
That left Rooney earning a basic £90-a-week as he played under a scholarship contract, though his regular outings for the first-team boosted that to nearer £1,500. Indeed, it hardly affected his form for the club he has supported since his childhood, with the winner against the champions followed by similarly decisive efforts at Leeds and against Blackburn Rovers.
The youngster has now scored five goals in his nine starts and caught the eye of Real Madrid, who made a tentative inquiry this month to secure first option on his signing. Another of Rooney’s qualities, natural aggression, earned him a three-match ban courtesy of a red card at Birmingham in December, since extended to four for accruing five yellow cards.
“I think everyone knows that me and my family are Everton-mad,” Rooney said. “For as long as I can remember, I have dreamed of playing for the club and to actually be appearing in the first team is fantastic. I’m really enjoying my football at the moment and I love training with the rest of the lads, though I honestly cannot find the words to describe the feeling I get when I run out at Goodison Park wearing the blue shirt.”
