I tapped up Wayne Rooney to sign for Man United after special Sir Alex Ferguson request

Yahoo

18-02-2025

Paul Scholes has revealed he 'tapped up' Wayne Rooney and convinced him to leave Everton and join Manchester United. Back in 2004, Rooney, who was aged just 18 at the time, swapped Merseyside for Manchester after bursting onto the scene in the Premier League.
Rooney scored 17 goals in 77 senior appearances for the Toffees before it became evident that his long-term future was elsewhere. After rejecting a significant offer from Newcastle United, Everton accepted a bid in the region of £20million plus add-ons from United.
His move to Old Trafford came after Rooney handed in a transfer request and it was clear that he wanted to force through a switch to Manchester. Now, ex-United midfielder Scholes has admitted he played a helping hand in convincing Rooney to join the club.
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When speaking about 'tapping up' players on The Overlap's Fan Debate, Scholes said: "Tapping up happens all the time. I never [got tapped up]! But it happens all the time. You're negotiating, the manager, well, I'm pretty sure Sir Alex would have done it. I'm pretty sure he would have done.
"He'll ring the player, they'd get everything agreed with the agent and this is even before they speak to the club. Then they'll go to the club, sort his wages, appearances money, bonus money - whatever it is - then you go to the club and they'll say 'right, you can speak to the player now'. It's already done, that's just the way of doing it.
"I tapped Wayne Rooney up! I did get asked to make a phone call to him at his house. I rang him."
Jamie Carragher replied: "How did that go?"
Scholes continued: "Well, he signed for us! But I didn't get any f***ing reward for it though!"
Rooney's move to United turned out to be one of the best pieces of business Sir Alex Ferguson did, with the boyhood Everton fan turning into a legend at Old Trafford. Rooney is the club's leading scorer with 253 goals in 559 appearances, overtaking Sir Bobby Charlton in January 2017.
He won the Premier League five times, the Champions League once, the FA Cup once and the League Cup on three occasions during his time at United. Rooney left Manchester in summer 2017 to return to Everton.