The face of England’s national team, and their most popular club team, Manchester United, voiced his support for the United States on Twitter today. Wayne Rooney expressed his U.S.A. cheerleading through his official Twitter page shortly after the U.S. kicked off their knockout round game versus Belgium:
Have to admit I’m a USA fan today
— Wayne Rooney (@WayneRooney) July 1, 2014
Rooney, who just this past spring signed the richest contract in the history of the English Premier League, is proving to be quite adept at social media lately. After England surprisingly crashed out early of the World Cup, he apologized to his disappointed national fanbase on his Facebook page. It certainly was not the fault of Wayne Rooney that England was eliminated early. He scored England’s lone goal in their second game and assisted on their only brace in their first game.
It makes sense that an icon of the Mother Country is jumping on the American bandwagon. English Premier League is much more popular in the United States than the American Major League Soccer. In fact, it’s popularity is growing so much stateside that it’s almost on par with the NHL; whom many Americans consider to be the fourth biggest sport. And unlike the other top soccer leagues across the world, the EPL shares the same language with the American audience. So Rooney is giving up some love back to some of the people that love his game.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports and Yahoo! The Postgame. He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world. Banks has been featured in numerous media outlets including NFL.com, Forbes, Bleacher Report, Deadspin, ESPN, NBC, the History Channel and more. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)