The Daily Telegraph
 

United get their man as Rooney signs £27m deal
By Sam Wallace,  1 September 2004

Wayne Rooney was announced as a Manchester United player just four hours before the transfer deadline last night in a deal that could earn his former club Everton as much as £27 million and will see the teenager's agent paid up to £1.5 million.
 
While the Goodison Park club had held out for a cash fee of £25 million for much of the negotiations, the necessity of selling Rooney has finally forced them into accepting United chief executive David Gill's deal that will see them paid just £10 million immediately.

With Everton struggling to provide their own manager, David Moyes, with any serious transfer funds this summer, they are now set to receive another £10 million in one year's time and will earn the rest on a complicated system of bonus payments which will relate to United's success as a team.

However, as Rooney emerged from Old Trafford at 8pm to sign autographs for fans who had waited at the stadium to see him, his agent, Paul Stretford, and his company, Proactive Sports Management, released a statement to defend their role in the deal.

Stretford has been the target of death threats on Merseyside from Everton fans who blame him for persuading Rooney to leave the club he has supported since he was a child. Everton supporters' groups have also been vitriolic in their condemnation of Stretford and chairman Bill Kenwright's handling of Rooney over the summer. They are unlikely to be pacified by the news that Proactive will earn up to £1.5 million from Rooney's six-year deal, including £500,000 immediately.

Proactive said that they backed the decisions made by Stretford throughout the negotiations. "Wayne Rooney has been the subject of a great deal of speculation surrounding this transfer and much of it has been inaccurate and malicious in its content.

"Partly as a result, Paul Stretford and his family have received a number of threats from misguided individuals purporting to be football fans, details of which have been passed on to the police."

There has also been a suggestion that Stretford handled much of the negotiations on Everton's behalf, as well as agreeing the personal terms for his player. Kenwright, who was described by friends as "devastated" at the loss of Rooney, has been without a chief executive at the club since Trevor Birch's resignation this summer.

After the two £10 million instalments that United are set to pay Everton, they will also pay £3 million when Rooney has completed three years of his current contract at United. The next £4 million will then be paid according to United's success in the Premiership and the Champions League as well as the England caps earned by Rooney.

Should United win the European Cup with Rooney in the team, Everton will earn £1 million, while a runners-up place will cost United £500,000. United will have to pay £500,000 if they win the Premiership or £250,000 if they finish as runners-up. A victory in the FA Cup for United would earn Everton £150,000.

Rooney is understood to be earning £55,000 a week on his new deal at United and Everton will be paid £1.5 million if the deal is extended. They will get £500,000 when he reaches 20 England caps and the same amount again when he reaches 40 caps.

The England striker, who will wear the No 8 shirt for United, will be presented to the media at Old Trafford around lunchtime today after under-going a medical exam at the Carrington training ground yesterday. Dressed casually in a striped jumper and jeans, he was introduced to Sir Alex Ferguson and staff at Old Trafford before finally leaving with Stretford at 8.15pm.

Rooney said: "It was a tough decision to leave Everton, the club I've supported and played for all my life, but I'm excited to be joining a club as big as Manchester United. I feel this can only improve my career, playing with top players in top competitions like the Champions League and I can't wait to meet up with the team."

Ferguson said: "I'm very excited, I think we've got the best young player this country has seen in the past 30 years. Everyone is delighted by this signing."

United have adopted a policy of disclosing agents' fees under the reign of new chief executive David Gill, who took over less than a year ago. They revealed that they paid £750,000 to agents on the transfers of both Alan Smith in July and Louis Saha in January.

© 2004 The Daily Telegraph

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