Wayne Rooney's Repressed Paddyness

I remember reading about some shit-hot teenage striker named Rooney playing for Everton in the Irish Emigrant over pints at the Brendan Behan back in Jamaice Plain in 2002. There was still some vague hope that Rooney might discover his Irish roots, but alas it was not to be and the rest is history.

Ireland was always somewhere in Wayne's mind though. Here he reveals his first World Cup memory in an interview by Rio Ferdinand. It's not Gazza's tears. Not Diana Ross's missed penalty. It's Houghton's chip of Pagliuca at Giants Stadium.

[youtube]

(Jump to the one minute mark)

"I don't know why I always remember that," Rooney says. It's his only USA 94 memory. What would Freud say?

H/t Pies