Fist fights in Southport and black eyes from Birkdale made up the majority of England striker Wayne Rooney’s youth, he has revealed.
As part of an intimate new documentary on Amazon Prime, the Liverpool born Everton and United legend recalls how he often would travel to Southport as a young boy to deliberately get into fist fights.
Rooney recalls that on one occasion he came home from Southport to his family home as a teenager with his ‘eye all stitched up’, following a bust up in the town, adding: ‘My mum weren’t happy’
He said: “I wouldn’t say that I was a bully but I would say there were some things I done which I shouldn’t have done. I crossed the line looking back now.
“I don’t know whether it was an anger or an enjoyment in it. Obviously sometimes you got hit and it is not nice but I used to get some kind of enjoyment out of it.
“I remember growing up I used to go to a lot of concerts. Travis concerts, Stereophonics, Cast. There was normally a lot of fighting at the end of it.
Wayne adds: “We knew there was a chance [of a fight.]
“We used to go Southport and fight a lot as well.
“I have come back from Southport with me eye all stitched up and my mum weren’t happy. I was probably about 12.
“You get taught you have to fight to survive and I don’t mean physically fight but you have to fight, you have to work harder than everybody else.