He is the captain of both Manchester United and England, holds the goals record for his country and is five away from enjoying the same distinction for his club, and on Wednesday night will be rewarded for his services to football with a testimonial at Old Trafford. In many ways life could not be better for Wayne Rooney.
But the timing of his testimonial comes at a fascinating moment for a player who is undoubtedly the greatest English talent for a generation. At the age of 30, Rooney is struggling to make himself indispensable to new United boss Jose Mourinho as he ponders exactly what type of footballer he hopes to become over the remainder of his career.
When he burst onto the scene with Wednesday’s opponents Everton, Rooney was an absolute one-off. At the age of 16 he had the drive, power, pace, hunger and technical maturity of a player twice his age. It took no time at all for Sven-Goran Eriksson to make him an England international and Sir Alex Ferguson was in no mood for hanging around when it was clear he was ready to leave Goodison Park after a phenomenal spell at Euro 2004.
Twelve years on from his arrival at Old Trafford he has been handed a well-earned charity match in front of what should be a capacity crowd, but he will have to fight hard for everything else which comes his way this term. With big-name reinforcements and Mourinho’s warning that he will not consider his skipper as a midfielder, Rooney knows he will be battling with the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Anthony Martial, Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard for a place.
A player of Rooney’s quality should be able to cement a spot in the starting XI, especially with the richness of talent which has been injected all around him this summer and the likely change of style which will see United move the ball quicker than Louis van Gaal preferred last term. That should all suit him down to the ground. But if he doesn’t quite hit his stride, then Rooney could well find himself sitting out games more often than he has become accustomed to over his 12 years in red.
The good news is that he is talking a good game in relation to the season to come. "Getting that mentality back, from being a midfield player to being a goalscorer again is what I’ve been working on all pre-season," he told the Daily Mail this week.
"I’d known for a long time I could play midfield if I had to, and the way United were playing as a team at the time it was the role I most enjoyed. But Jose has come in, he has seen me play in another position for 10 years scoring goals, and that’s what he wants me to do. It’s not as if it’s a new position for me. I wasn’t apprehensive at all. I was excited.
"This is one of the best coaches in the world and, sure, I’ve got to impress him. But I’ve always felt I’ve got to impress every manager and you should be able to play different positions. No one spotted this, but during the tournament with England sometimes in training I’d play the role of the opposition centre-half alongside John Stones."
While he is about as likely to play in the United defence as he is in the heart of midfield, Rooney will probably be used in more than one forward position under Mourinho.
"Maybe he is not a No.9 anymore but he will never with me be a No.6," the Portuguese has said of Rooney. "He will never be 50 metres from the goal. For me he will be a No.9 or a No.10 or a nine-and-a-half, but with me he will never be a No. 6 or even a No.8."
So as fans of Manchester United and Everton reflect on the Wayne Rooney which has blazed a trail at both clubs in the past, the man himself must start thinking to the future. Now is the time for him to decide what the Wayne Rooney of the next five years will look like. Nobody expects him to be the blockbusting talent of his teenage years, but they will hope for more excellence for some time yet.
Whether Rooney 2.0 becomes remembered as simply a slight variation on the record breaker of years gone by, or as a poor imitation of the young superstar he once was, is entirely up to him.
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