It's 20 years since Old Trafford first witnessed thrilling, raw talent Rooney

AS Wayne Rooney prepared for his United debut inside the unfamiliar home dressing room at Old Trafford, he soon realised he had a problem.

- TYRONE MARSHALL

After a couple of months out of action, the teenager had focused on gym work and as he put the 2004/05 shirt on for the first time he found it would barely fit. Rooney squeezed into the shirt but it was now too tight around his neck.

The scouser was left with little option but to rip a United shirt.

But this was a scouser who could get away with such misdemeanours. There was a crackle in the air on the night of September 28, 2004, when Rooney was named on a United teamsheet for the first time.

Then still only 18, he was England’s golden boy, fresh off an electric introduction to tournament football at that summer’s European Championship and a £25million move from Everton to United. As he returned to fitness after sustaining an injury during Euro 2004 he was itching to get going at his new club.

Sir Alex Ferguson tried to keep him on a leash but with Fenerbahce in town for a Champions League group stage fixture, he was let go.

What happened next remains as memorable today as it was 20 years ago. Rooney tore into the Turks, scoring a hat-trick on his debut to confirm his status as one of the most exciting footballers in the world.

“Maybe he will become the player of the century,” Fenerbahce coach Christoph Daum said in his postmatch interview.

Rooney didn’t quite reach that target, but it says a lot about just how good he was in this period that it didn’t seem an outlandish claim at the time.

“The ripped shirt is an easy one, I had been injured for two-and-ahalf months, so I had done a lot of work in the gym and my neck wouldn’t fit in the top,” Rooney told the UTD podcast. “That’s all it was. It fitted in but it was really tight, so I just ripped it to make sure I was comfortable.