Wayne Rooney scored in his first game back with Everton on Thursday, and was given a hug by a spectator who ran onto the field.
Rooney scored the opener for his boyhood club in Everton’s 2-1 win over Kenya-based Gor Mahia in a pre-season friendly in Tanzania.
After 13 years with Manchester United, it was an ideal way to mark his return as Rooney curled in a shot from about 27m in the 35th minute.
Photo: EPA
Gor Mahia equalized three minutes later, but Kieran Dowell scored the winner for Everton with nine minutes to go — another long-range strike.
Early in the game, Rooney was hugged by a man wearing a Manchester United shirt who evaded security officials long enough to reach the England striker.
Rooney then gave the local supporters and Everton fans at home plenty to cheer about when he controlled a pass from Ademola Lookman with his back to the goal, turned and sent a right-foot shot sailing into the top-left corner.
“I am happy to score in my first match,” Rooney said.
Everton is the first Premier League team to visit Tanzania and the brief tour was an indication of the superstar status Rooney still holds around the world.
Fans chanting his name gathered outside the Everton hotel when the team arrived earlier in the week and crowds flocked wherever he went in the buildup to the game.
Rooney’s return to Everton on a two-year deal was announced last weekend, taking the 31-year-old forward back to the club he grew up watching and supporting, and which he says he still supported throughout his time at Manchester United.
Rooney left Everton in 2004 as a teenager and went on to become Manchester United’s record all-time goal-scorer.
After Rooney’s first game back, Everton manager Ronald Koeman said: “He is still one of the best in his position.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but