Wayne Rooney has revealed that a move to Barcelona during his peak years was more than a passing idea, even if the deal never came close to completion. The former Manchester United forward said there was \u201ca possibility\u201d of joining Pep Guardiola\u2019s side, adding another layer to one of the most intriguing transfer what-ifs of the modern era.<\/p>\n
The story traces back to a tense period at Old Trafford. After Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez departed in back-to-back summers, Rooney went to Sir Alex Ferguson in August 2010 to question the club\u2019s transfer direction. The response was immediate and unambiguous, with the manager telling him to leave his office.<\/p>\n
A few months later, Rooney made his transfer request public, prompting interest from Chelsea, Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona. On the United Stand podcast, he explained how realistic the Spanish option was. \u201cIt was a little bit [of a possibility],\u201d Rooney revealed, \u201cbut financially it was difficult for them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was enthusiastic about the idea. \u201cI would\u2019ve love to have played for Barcelona,\u201d Rooney gushed. At the time, Barcelona already had Lionel Messi, Andr\u00e9s Iniesta and Xavi Hern\u00e1ndez at the heart of a side that dominated the era, yet Rooney felt his game could have fitted their structure. He pointed to their Champions League meetings with United and the absence of a fixed centre forward.<\/p>\n
Rooney also understood that Guardiola had not built his attack around a traditional No. 9, despite the earlier arrival of Zlatan Ibrahimovi\u0107. By the time Rooney considered leaving in January 2011, David Villa had already been brought in, with Pedro also established in the frontline.<\/p>\n
Even so, Rooney\u2019s admiration for the team was clear, and the feeling was mutual. Xavi described him as \u201ca player I have admired for a long time. He is an extraordinary player with extraordinary capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, Rooney stayed put and remained United\u2019s central attacking figure until Robin van Persie arrived in 2012. Across 2010-12, he led the side for starts, minutes and goals, while also contributing a significant number of assists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rooney said Barcelona was a real option in 2010, though finance made any deal difficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1017,179],"tags":[1047,180,182],"class_list":["post-18582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona","category-manchester-united","tag-champions-league","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}