Wayne Rooney was Everton blue to the core after joining the club’s youth academy at age 10 and it was on this day in soccer history in 2002 that the 16-year-old came on against Arsenal and scored his first Premier League goal which happened to be the game winner.
The goal ended the Gunners 30 match un-beaten run and made a name for the youngster with commentator Clive Tyldesley exclaiming after the goal: “Remember the name: Wayne Rooney!”
Wayne Rooney is a lethal striker and you can wear official gear from soccer jerseys to soccer boots that Rooney wears on the soccer pitch.
--- Get in the gear of Wayne Rooney at the World Soccer Shop. You can Shop By Player when you visit the WSS and get official names and numbers as well as soccer cleats and more. Get in the Gear. ---
At 16 years and 360 days old, Rooney became the youngest player to ever score in the Premier League but that record has since been broken.
Also broken have been the hearts of Everton fans, when Rooney was lured away from the club by Manchester United. After scoring in a Youth FA Cup match, Rooney pulled up his jersey to reveal a t-shirt reading ‘Once a Blue, always a Blue’ but apparently £25.6 million and a chance to play in Europe was all Rooney needed to jump ship.
Rooney ended his Everton career with 15 goals from 67 matches including the first one that you can check out here.
Soccer Birthdays
1943 – Takis Ikonomopoulos, Greek footballer
1954 – Sam Allardyce, English football manager
1969 – Erwin Sánchez, Bolivian footballer
1977 – Raúl Tamudo, Spanish footballer
1977 – Habib Beye, Senegalese footballer
1978 – Zakhar Dubenskiy, Russian footballer
1979 – José Luis "Parejita" López, Mexican footballer
1982 – Gonzalo Pineda, Mexican footballer
1989 – Miroslav Stoch, Slovakian footballer
Soccer Deaths
2007 – Michael Maidens, English footballer with Hartlepool United (b. 1987)
