It’s so easy to get carried away especially on a Manchester United blog such as this. The temptation to go over the top is always there and as difficult as it can be, that same temptation must be resisted at all times but with all the objectivity that can be mustered the obvious question must still be asked.
Is Wayne Rooney the most valuable player in the world? Is he the one player that any club from Rio to Rome, Buenos Aires to Barcelona and yes even from Los Angeles to London willingly give their right arm and whatever else they may possess for his signature?
One thinks of Cristiano Ronaldo and his £80 million transfer to Real Madrid, Kaka for seventy and it can only be guessed at how much the sensational younger Lionel Messi or Fernando Torres – despite his chronic injuries, will realistically be valued at?
Based on the mind boggling amounts that have been banded about in today’s vastly inflated market, what sort of transfer fee can be demanded for the 24 year old goal scoring machine in the likely event of someone trying to lure him away from Old Trafford? After all everyone has a price as United found out with Ronaldo last season.
We may have to wait until June for a realistic answer when Rooney will be trying to do the business on the world stage where he will be rubbing shoulders with the best of the best. It can be safely assumed however that he will not suffer in any way by comparison.
His two leg, four goal tally which almost single handedly demolished whatever challenge AC Milan may have contemplated in the Champions League was not accidental but simply a continuation of the form which has seen him plunder 30 goals whether it was against the likes of Wigan or the more vaunted Rossoneri.
The man has got everything that any football manager can possibly look for in a player both on and off the field. A deadly shot with either foot, a recently found knack of scoring valuable goals with his head, superb athleticism, an appetite to cover every blade of grass on the pitch, a burning fire in his belly, an unquenchable desire to be a winner then to top it all off for one so young, a maturity far and away beyond his years that only a settled family life and fatherhood can bring.
If Wayne Rooney did not exist, some super imaginative, football obsessed scientist would have had to invent him but wait, this is beginning to sound a little over the top!
Rooney may not have the audacity of George Best, the goal scoring instincts of Denis Law, the football brain of Bobby Charlton, the influence of Eric Cantona, the leadership of Bryan Robson or the ferociousness of Roy Keane but maybe, just maybe, at the age of 24, Wayne Rooney could already have all those qualities rolled into the one, superb, superstar!
Are these words being written too soon after that whitewash of Milan? Is the adrenalin still pumping way too fast? Possibly, but guess what? Who cares?
Who do you rate as the most valuable player in the world today?
