Wayne Rooney called out his old friend – and Premier League rival – Jamie Carragher upon his return to his childhood boxing club.
The Manchester United legend was visiting Croxteth Amateur Boxing Club as part of Queensbury Promotions’ spotlighting of local stars Jack Turner and Oliver Jones.
Rooney spent time in the club during his boyhood, with his uncle Richie Rooney its founder.
And as he stepped into the ring, Rooney’s mind turned to who he might like to meet there if given the opportunity.
‘I’d f***ing love to get Carragher in the ring, so you can tell him,’ Rooney said before turning to the camera to deliver a personal message. ‘Carra, I would love to get you in the ring.’
Later on in the interview, Rooney extolled the virtues of boxing, the sport he believes is the one he likes to watch the most, in helping him develop as a footballer.
Wayne Rooney called out Jamie Carragher as his dream opponent for a boxing match
The old Premier League rivals frequently appear together in friendlier media settings
‘I love boxing. Love watching boxing,’ Rooney said. ‘But I wasn’t good enough to go down that route. It’s where I’m from.
‘I always think being able to play for Everton at 16, boxing was a big part of that. It helped my legs grow, my bum grow. You need that for your power.’
Rooney has previously flirted with the idea of joining influencer boxing promotion Misfits two years ago, claiming in a sit-down with Gary Neville and his Stick to Football podcast that he had been inundated with offers.
‘They’ve been in touch and asked the question but I think at the minute, I want to focus on getting back into management, not boxing,’ Rooney said shortly after his then-sacking as Birmingham City manager.
‘They’ve been in touch to fight, yeah. There’s been a few and obviously that Misfits have been in [touch] and that’s been all over the news.’
He did claim that it was a case of ‘never know’ when it came to taking part in a fight.
At the time, Neville’s co-host Carragher had joked Rooney’s vagueness would not make ‘a great title’ for the podcast episode.
Should Rooney ever return to the idea, he might hope to do better than his infamous 2015 sparring with then-Man United team-mate Phil Bardsley, which saw the England icon knocked to the floor of his own kitchen.
Rooney then performed an iconic celebration referencing the incident as he mimicked being knocked out when he scored against Tottenham at Old Trafford days later.
Bardsley recalled the hilarious moment on the UTD Podcast in 2021. ‘We were having a drink, having a laugh, playing guitar and the next minute these boxing gloves appear! I was thinking: “what’s going on here?”
‘So my brother steps up, has a go with Wazza and obviously he loves his boxing, doesn’t he? He loves scrapping. And then I’m like: ‘give us them, I’ll have a go’.
‘He’s throwing a few bombs and obviously he’s a big lad, isn’t he? Strong. We’re exchanging blows – the Crocky (Croxteth) kid and the Salford kid, there’s no holding back!
‘He just walked into a jab. He was only out for a couple of seconds but we were all panicking – what’s going on here?
‘We didn’t know what to do, panic stations and we had no phone signal. We were all thinking: “if he doesn’t open his eyes, we can’t phone an ambulance, there’s no signal”. So much panic!
‘Anyway, he comes around, goes to the sink. I’ve got a big cut lip, blood everywhere and he’s got some blood under his nose and we’re just looking at each other and laughing.’
In the years since, Rooney has passed on his own love of the sport to his sons, with the four boys – including talented Man United youth player Kai – given their own personalised boxing room for the family gym for Christmas in 2023.
