Rooney admits merciless rest room prank performed on Moyes – then he darted from the scene
Wayne Rooney has confessed a hilarious prank he pulled on David Moyes during their time together at Everton.
The England legend was a teen sensation when Moyes gave him his big break in the Premier League as a 16-year-old, back in August 2002. Rooney quickly became one of the hottest prospects in world football, especially after netting a stunner against Arsenal shortly before turning 17.
Despite Moyes’ efforts to shield young Rooney from too much fame and carefully manage his game time, the mischievous striker paid him back by soaking him with a bucket of water after being egged on by his team-mates. It seems that Rooney’s never owned up to the prank before, having been quizzed by his former Manchester United and England team-mate Gary Neville about the incident.
READ MORE: Roy Keane ‘necked wine from the bottle’ and was ‘thrown through bar window’ on lairy night out
READ MORE: England duo book place on Euro 2024 plane in warm-up as Gareth Southgate ponders squad
“Moyesy’s ran in off the training pitch. He obviously must have desperately needed the toilet, ran in, straight into the first team dressing room,” Rooney revealed on The Overlap, brought to you by SkyBet. “Straight on the toilet, closed the door. I knew what was happening, I could see them all looking at me, filling the bucket up. They were like, ‘There you go’. I’m like, ‘For f*** sake’.”
“I’ve gone in the next cubicle, stood on the toilet and then gone whoosh. I sprinted out of there, just got out of there!”
Rooney’s prank could’ve easily damaged his chances at Everton, but luckily for him, Moyes never twigged that the teenager was behind it. Quizzed by Ian Wright on how Moyes reacted, Rooney admitted: “Mate, I was gone. I done it and was off. I wasn’t waiting around for him to come out.”
(Image: Gary M.Prior/Getty Images)
In 2004, Rooney made a splash with his stellar performances for England at the Euros and subsequently joined United for a hefty £27m fee. It was after his high-profile move to Old Trafford that things turned sour with Moyes due to allegations in Rooney’s tell-all book. Rooney has since mended the rift with Moyes, who briefly took over from Sir Alex Ferguson at United in 2013.
“Moyesy was really good for me at Everton,” Rooney reflected. “He sued me after I left the club – I hammered him when I left because of how I felt at the time.
“I spoke to him a few years after I left, I called him up and apologised because the older you get, you realise why he was doing things. It was new to him to have a player getting all those headlines, for him to figure out.
“He was a young manager at the time, it was new to him. When I look back, he was really good for me, he was constantly on me. He was trying to not let me think that I was better than I was.”
