Wayne Rooney has agreed a “deal in principle” to join Major League Soccer (MLS) side DC United from Premier League club Everton, reports said on Thursday.
It has been suggested a £12.5 million (US$16.91 million) deal has been agreed that could see the 32-year-old leave his boyhood club just 12 months after rejoining them from Manchester United.
Reports say Rooney has been offered a contract until the end of the 2020 season, although the MLS transfer window does not open until July.
Photo: AFP
“In MLS, you have always some iconic players that are going to end their careers there,” said Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho, who coached Rooney in his final season at Old Trafford.
“You had [Steven] Gerrard, [Frank] Lampard, [Patrick] Vieira ... now you have Zlatan [Ibrahimovic], you have Wayne, so I hope he enjoys [it],” Mourinho said. “Of course, he will bring the attention that MLS needs to attract more people, to steal some people from the other sports that more Americans like.”
DC United are currently rock-bottom of the MLS Eastern Conference table with five points from seven games.
Everton manager Sam Allardyce earlier this week said he wanted England’s and Manchester United’s record goalscorer to see out the final year of his contract next season.
“There have been rumors about Wayne going abroad — China or America. It would have to be massive for him to want leave Everton,” the Toffees boss told talkSPORT.
Allardyce and Rooney have had their differences and the player’s show of dissent when substituted in April’s Merseyside derby resulted in clear-the-air talks between the pair.
Rooney, who first burst onto the scene at Everton at the age of just 16, is the club’s top scorer this season with 11 goals, but he has not scored since Dec. 18 last year.
Allardyce has played him in a midfield role in the second half of the season in an attempt to inject some creativity into the team, but that has affected the player’s personal form and led to growing frustration.
The former England captain last year left United on a free transfer following 13 trophy-laden years after becoming a peripheral figure under Mourinho.
He talked at that time about how he wanted to play a part in Everton winning silverware after a long trophy drought, dating back to their 1995 FA Cup win.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB