- The Red Devils icon settled with his former head coach and withdrew allegations
- Moyes later coached Rooney at Old Trafford during his stint in charge at United
- Their second goal was one of the great FA Cup goals… Where has this Man United been all season? Listen to the It’s All Kicking Off podcast
Wayne Rooney has opened up on the experience of being sued by his former manager David Moyes over 16 years after the former Everton manager took legal action against the player to whom he gave his Goodison Park debut.
Moyes had given the academy player his start in the first team in 2002 but just two years later, Rooney would catch the eye at Old Trafford, moving in the summer of 2004 to Manchester United for a then-record fee of £30million.
But the relationship between the England international and Moyes flared further in 2008, when the manager brought legal action against Rooney over an accusation in his recently published autobiography ‘My Story So Far’.
This was generally regarded as the first time in football history that a manager had accused one of their players of libel, and Rooney spoke of his regret over his role in muddying their relationship.
‘David Moyes was really good for me at Everton,’ Rooney told Gary Neville on The Overlap, brought to you by Sky Bet.
Wayne Rooney (left) and David Moyes (right) were previously involved in a legal dispute
The manager had given Rooney his first senior start as he rose through the ranks at Everton
But their relationship later soured as Rooney left Goodison Park for Manchester United
‘He sued me after I left the club – I hammered him when I left because of how I felt at the time.
‘(I regret that). 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 good for me, he was constantly on me. He was trying to not let me think that I was better than I was.’
Moyes brought his case against Rooney and his publishers Harper Collins over an accusation that the former West Ham manager had leaked details of a private discussion between player and head coach over Rooney’s plans to leave the club.
The Scottish manager also took action against the Daily Mail, who had serialised excerpts of the memoir in print.
In response, Rooney and his publishers withdrew the accusation, and apologised to Moyes, with Harper Collins agreeing to pay ‘substantial damages’ to the manager.
In a statement at the time of the ruling, Moyes said that he was ‘glad’ his name had been ‘fully cleared’.
The publication of Rooney’s autobiography prompted Moyes to sue his former forward
But the pair later made up and Moyes coached Rooney at Old Trafford for the 2013-14 season
‘Anyone who knows me well would, I hope, regard me as a man of honour and integrity,’ Moyes continued. ‘I was disappointed and wanted people to know that what had been written was completely untrue.
#I felt that I had no choice but to take action for a full apology and damages. Having accepted these, I do not intend to make any financial gain from this and shall give that to the Everton Former Players Foundation.
‘All of the above said, we have now moved on and I wish Wayne and his family all the best for the future both on the field and off it.’
Rooney confirmed that he had repaired his relationship with Moyes in the aftermath of the formal apology, and later played under Moyes at Man United during the manger’s ill-fated stint at Old Trafford during the 2013-14 season.