Wayne+Rooney

**Wayne Rooney**

media type="youtube" key="tMbqnxhcxE8" height="390" width="640"

media type="youtube" key="SFvZ389nsCE" height="390" width="640"

By: John Donlon

** Biography ** On October 24, 1985 in Liverpool, England Wayne Rooney was born. He is five foot ten inches tall and weighs one hundred-seventy two pounds. He is a forward that currently plays for Manchester United wearing jersey number ten.

As a child, Rooney played for Liverpool Schoolboys, and Dynamo Brownwings. At the age of ten years old, Rooney joined Everton’s youth team. As he had much success and excelled greatly, he quickly found his way on Everton’s first team in 2002. During his time with Everton, Rooney produced fifteen goals in sixty-seven appearances. After another unsuccessful season for Everton, in 2004, Rooney requested for a transfer because he wanted to win and didn’t feel like he could win with Everton. Two teams created a bidding war for him, just as Newcastle United was thought to have him; Manchester United won the war with a E25.6 million deal. This deal gave Rooney one of his many record breakers, being the highest paid player for someone under twenty years old.

Rooney made his Manchester United debut on September 24, 2004 where he tallied three goals and an assist in a 6-2 victory. Some other records that Rooney had broken include being the youngest player to make two hundred appearances, youngest player to play for England’s National team, youngest player to score for England’s National team, and youngest player to score in the Euro Cup. Some of these records have since been broken but still is an amazing achievement.

In the quarter-finals of the World Cup in 2006, England faced one of Manchester United’s then big time players, in Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal. Fairly early into the second half, Rooney went in for a tackle and lost his control and focus. Rooney had stomped on Portugal defender Ricardo Carvalho’s ankle. As the referee quickly approached Rooney, Rooney’s Manchester United teammate, Cristiano Ronaldo openly protested Rooney’s actions and was then shoved by Rooney. Rooney was given a red card and sent off the field, as Rooney left the field, Cristiano turned to Portugal’s bench and was seen winking at the bench (can be seen in the video above). After the England loss, England was not very happy with Cristiano’s actions toward Rooney since they played on Manchester United together. Rooney stated, “I bear no ill feeling to Cristiano but am disappointed that he chose to get involved. I suppose I to, though, have to remember that on that particular occasion we were not teammates.”

Rooney is known as a very aggressive player, some consider him very, hot-headed. Throughout his career he has received a handful of red cards including a red card and a three game suspension for elbowing another defender in the face. Despite Rooney’s aggressiveness and temper, he can still be looked at as a very successful soccer player thus far. He has many endorsements including deals with Nike, Nokia, Ford, Coca-Cola, and has also appeared on the cover of the UK version of FIFA’s video game five straight years.

Rooney has had a great career thus far, from 2002-2009, he has 122 goals in 330 appearances not counting his 25 career goals in international play. In addition to possibly having one of the greatest goals in soccer all-time (can be seen in the video above).

** Trait / Skill Perspective **  Many people may have different opinions on Wayne Rooney. Some describe him as an athlete that is very eager and determined to win, some say he may be too hot-headed and has anger issues. It appears to be that either one hates or loves him, for whatever reason it may be.

In the 1960’s researchers found that a trait-approach known as the Big Five. The Big Five Personality Assessment suggests that personality has five dimensions. These dimensions, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness, are present in each person either to a small degree, or a large degree (Friedman, 2009, p. 267).

If we first take a look at the first dimension, extroversion, which includes how sociable and enthusiastic a person is (Friedman, 2009, p. 267). Rooney would be seen as a very extroverted person. This can be proven because of he is a very enthusiastic person and not shy at all. He is very well known in England and parts all over the world due to his on and off the field actions. Agreeableness dimension can be described as how nice, pleasant, and cooperative a person is (Friedman, 2009, p. 267). Rooney can be seen as having a high agreeableness level off the field but a low agreeableness dimension on the field. Although Rooney has at times portrayed himself as being a nice, pleasant, and cooperative person off the field, when he takes the pitch, it has been seen that he takes on a different personality. Conscientiousness measures how impulsive people are (Friedman, 2009, p. 267). Therefore, we can come to the conclusion that Rooney has a low conscientiousness level due to the fact that he is not really a cautious player and will do pretty much whatever it takes to win. Due to his actions on the pitch and the number of fouls, yellow cards, red cards, and injuries he has caused to both himself and others shows even more that he is not a cautious person. Neuroticism can be defined by whether someone is tense, moody, and nervous (Friedman, 2009, p. 267). Based on this definition we can learn that Rooney is in the middle of neuroticism. We can see this because Rooney along with many other athletes can be seen to be more nervous prior to big games versus games of less significance. So at times Rooney can be seen as more nervous and tense versus times when he isn’t nervous nor tense at all. The final dimension, openness, can be defined as being open to art, culture, and appear imaginative and original (Friedman, 2009, p. 267). Rooney can be seen as having a low openness dimension because he is not really ever opened to anything and likes to stick to a consistent routine.

A question that should be asked is based on Rooney’s levels of the Big Five dimensions, what makes his levels of each dimension a superior soccer player compared to everyone else? Rooney can be considered one of the best current soccer players playing today. His levels of each dimension make it easier for him to achieve such a title due to his commitment to maintain each dimension level. If one takes a look at a soccer player of lesser significance they’d probably learn that their dimension levels are vastly different.

**Neo-Analytic / Ego Perspective**

According to Carl Jung and Alfred Adler the Neo-Analytic approach connects with how a person see’s themselves, as the main basis to their personality, while “ego” can be used to mean one’s “sense of self” (Friedman, 2009, p. 110).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">When the Neo-Analytic approach is used, one of the main contributors is most often always used, Carl Jung. One thing that he is known for when it comes to the Neo-Analytic approach are archetypes, which are powerful emotional symbols. Due to these emotional patterns, they cause us to predisposition ourselves to react in certain ways (Friedman, 2009, p. 113).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 200%;">One of Jung’s archetypes that can fit Wayne Rooney’s personality is the persona and shadow archetype. The persona part of this archetype can explain how we present ourselves on the outside whereas the shadow part is how we actually feel on the inside. This persona and shadow archetype can be seen in Rooney when he is dealing with the media and public. Being an elite athlete as Rooney is, especially in England, Rooney must try to display a good image of himself to the public and media both on and off the field. An interesting thing to point out however is that although Rooney does a pretty good job dealing with his shadow image, there are times when his shadow image breaks through his persona image, again, both on and off the field. A perfect example of this was stated in his biography above when dealing with his club teammate on the field and getting a red card for his actions.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Another Neo-Analytic psychologist, Alfred Adler, can be associated with inferiority complex. Adler believed that a large part of personality is due to one striving to be the best. Rooney is a clear example of the inferiority complex. As mentioned earlier, Rooney is the kind of person that will do whatever it takes to win, he requested a trade from a team in his early years in the league when he was still trying to prove himself because he didn’t feel he had a good enough chance to win and be superior. Rooney was successful in the trade request and went on to play in one of the leagues best teams and helping them to win the championship.

<span style="color: #b90404; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 52px;">**Humanistic / Existential Perspective**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 32pt;">Existentialism is defined as an area of philosophy that is concerned with the meaning of human existence (Friedman, 2009, p. 294). In other words, how an individual feels about their self worth. Wayne Rooney deals with this issue greatly.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 32pt;">Wayne Rooney has had to face issues both on and off the field throughout his life. Some of these issues were more significant then others. One key issue that Rooney has had to battle throughout his career is injuries. He’s had a number of injuries including, a fractured metatarsal, hamstring ailment, in addition to many other injuries. After one foot injury Rooney faced a race to fitness for the 2006 World Cup. His country’s team, England, attempted to accelerate his recovery with the use of an oxygen tent which allowed him to enter a group match against Trinidad and Tobago. Despite these injuries Rooney never seemed to lose focus or feel down about himself, he stepped up to these issues and did not allow them to affect his play.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 37px;"> Rooney has faced some off the field issues too. In 2004, Rooney admitted to soliciting prostitution in Liverpool. After it became public, Rooney stated, “I was young and stupid. It was at a time when I was very young and immature…” Another situation that Rooney had to face was when two tabloids claimed that Rooney had assaulted his fiancé. Rooney was awarded E100,000 in libel damages from the two tabloids as it proved to be inaccurate information. Rooney donated all the money to a charity. One last event that Rooney had to deal with off the field was when a former team of Rooney, Everton, had their owner, David Moyes sue Rooney for comments that Rooney had made in his autobiography. Rooney paid the money to Moyes and the case was settled. Despite these off the field allegations, Rooney was able to continue to play and not let any of it affect his playing or his self worth.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 28pt;">Wayne Rooney can definitely relate to what Carl Rogers describes a fully functioning person is a person who leads an…exciting, and courageous life (Friedman, 2009, p. 303). Wayne Rooney has proven himself to fit this role in a precise way. As big as soccer is in England, Rooney has taken on these obstacles and refused to allow them to affect his play and his self worth. These issues may cause others to collapse and/or give up their goals in life to be the best that they can be.

<span style="color: #b90404; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">**Behaviorist Theory**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">One view of the behaviorist theory comes from Pavlov. His concept of classical conditioning, explains associations between certain behaviors and rewards and punishments ((Friedman, 2009, p. 191). Wayne Rooney, since he made his professional soccer debut in the 2001-2002 season through the on-going season right now has received, only 4 red cards and 89 yellow cards in 390 combined games (ESPN, 2011). These games include international, World Cup, and basic regular professional games.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">When a soccer player receives a red card in a soccer game, they are ejected from the game at the time of when the red card was given and their team has to play down a man. In to that they are suspended for at least the following game. In order for a player to receive a red card, there are really only two ways, one way is receiving two yellow cards which the first yellow card received is a warning, and the second way is a straight red card without receiving a yellow card prior. In order to receive either a red or yellow card, one must either commit a very hard and illegal foul, or argue with the referee, or any other extenuating circumstance that needs to be dealt with other then just simply calling a foul. Although yellow cards are very common in soccer one can’t really get penalized for it as it is just a warning.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">For Rooney to understand the punishment or what a red card could result in shows his self-control. His behavior on the field is greatly influenced by the punishment rules of the red card system. He knows the reward of not getting a red card means it not only benefits him because he gets to play, but it benefits his team as they need him. It is very interesting to see that compared to his relatively high number of yellow cards he has received throughout his career (89), only receiving 4 red cards is pretty remarkable. This seems to be true due to the high level of intensity each game is played, there are high emotions and constant pressure to succeed and yet Rooney is still able to keep his emotions in check due to the fact or reward and punishment.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 200%;">** Discussion **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 200%;">The above approaches are the best ways to describe someone like Wayne Rooney. Wayne Rooney has created an image for himself that many people either love or hate. Despite his remarkable success in soccer, he has had to face many on and off the field obstacles that he has created for himself because of his personality. Using the trait approach, we were able to learn how interesting he is. Throughout each aspect of the Big Five, we learned that Rooney was either low in each aspect or pretty much right in the middle. Due to these findings its interesting to see why he has had as much success as he has had and create a love or hate image for himself. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 200%;"> After we took the Neo-Analytics approach on Wayne Rooney, we learned that he has to have a persona and shadow archetype. We learn this because Rooney has to deal with the media and public on almost a daily basis because of his huge image. We learned that he does a good job keeping his persona on the outside while keeping his shadow on the inside. We also learned that he can be associated with having an inferiority complex in which he will do whatever it takes to be the best.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 200%;">Although Wayne Rooney has brought upon many obstacles throughout his career due to his personality, in addition to creating an either love or hate relationship with soccer fans, he will go down as one of the best to ever play the game.

** References **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 200%;">Friedman, H. S. & Schustack, M. W. (2009). Personality: Classic theories and modern research (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 200%;">Wayne Rooney statistics on soccernet.espn.com (n.d.). Retrieved from http://soccernet.espn.go.com/player/_/id/21046/wayne-rooney?cc=5901.