Ferguson tribute a sign rift with Rooney is healed

LONDON — Alex Ferguson has added to the tributes to the Manchester United career of Wayne Rooney, further evidence that the two have repaired their relationship following the split that marked the Scot’s retirement three years ago.

Ferguson is expected to attend Rooney’s testimonial game against Everton this morning, which is expected to attract a crowd of between 55,000 and 60,000 to Old Trafford and will raise considerable sums for charity, including the club’s and Rooney’s foundations.

In the match programme, United’s greatest manager says Rooney was a key a part of the team’s resurgence under him around 10 years ago.

There was a monumental fallout between the two when Ferguson left in 2013 and claimed that Rooney wanted to leave the club. Since then there has been a rapprochement.

Ferguson says he had tried to sign Rooney from Everton in 2000, when he was still 14, before paying £30 million (S$53.7 million) for him four years later.

Speaking to the official programme he says: “He (Rooney) was an exciting signing (in 2004). It was fairly shortly after I’d got rid of the idea of retiring and changed my mind, and I had to rethink about how we were going to take the club forward.

“Of course there was Cristiano Ronaldo, then there was Rooney, and it was a fantastic period. The two of them were unbelievable.

“I always think that great players can play in any era. Bobby Charlton would have been a great player today and Wayne Rooney would have been a great player back then.”

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH