title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In March 2021, Greene was one of 14 House Republicans to vote against a measure condemning the Myanmar coup d'état, for reasons reported to be unclear.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In June 2021, Greene was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In July 2021, Greene stated on Bannon's show that, if she had the authority to, she would kick out every Chinese person in the United States who is loyal to the Chinese Communist Party and impose strict tariffs on China. Also in July, Greene voted against the bipartisan ALLIES Act, which would increase the number of special immigrant visas for Afghan allies of the U.S. military during its invasion of Afghanistan by 8,000, while also reducing some application requirements that caused long application backlogs; the bill passed in the House by a vote of 407–16.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Throughout the Russo-Ukrainian War, Greene has promoted Russian propaganda and praised Vladimir Putin. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, she criticized the "corrupt" Ukrainian government and argued against sending Ukraine weapons. She has suggested that Ukraine instigated the invasion by agitating Russia.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Greene has been critical of NATO. She was one of 18 Republicans to vote against admitting Sweden and Finland to NATO.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: At a September 2020 gun rights rally in Ringgold, Georgia, Greene said she would always protect gun owners' rights and would not vote for any laws making it harder for people to possess guns. She said: "The government will never tell me how many guns I can own, and how many bullets I am allowed to fire if someone were to attack me or my kids".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In June 2021, Greene introduced a bill to abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The bill also sought to provide monetary grants to the families of Border Patrol agents killed as a result of Operation Fast and Furious.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In June 2022, Greene argued that Canada's proposed gun control laws would leave Canada "weak and vulnerable to being invaded and easily taken over by another stronger country", such as "Russia, who is very angry at America right now."


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In July 2022, Greene claimed that the July 4 Highland Park parade shooting was "designed to make Republicans go along with more gun control" because the shooting occurred "in a rich, white neighborhood". She also claimed that "We didn't see that at all the Pride parades in the month of June" and that "As soon as we hit MAGA month ... we have shootings on July Fourth". Although Greene conceded that her comments might sound "like a conspiracy theory", she said that "the definition of a right-wing conspiracy theory" is "just the news a month early."


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In November 2021, Greene said that any Republican who supported the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was "a traitor to our party, a traitor to their voters and a traitor to our donors". She called the $1.2 trillion bill Biden's "communist takeover of America". Greene criticized the 13 House Republicans who voted for the bill as "American job and energy killers" and derided them as "China-First and America-Last". Fred Upton, one of the 13, said that he received over 1,000 calls, including death threats, after Greene publicized their office phone numbers on Twitter.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: On February 2, 2021, Greene co-sponsored the Old Glory Only Act, a bill to ban U.S. embassies from flying pride flags. Two days later, she said she was "censored" by Twitter for "absolutely believing with all my heart that God's creation is he created them male and female".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: On February 24, 2021, Greene tried to block the Equality Act while it was being debated on the House floor, saying that it would "destroy God's creation" and "violate everything we hold dear in God's creation". She proposed replacing it with a bill that would exempt nonprofit organizations, allow people to sue the federal government "if their religious rights are violated", and prevent trans women and girls from participating in women's sports. After floor debate on the bill that day, Representative Marie Newman, whose congressional office is directly across from Greene's, displayed a transgender pride flag outside her office. In response, Greene displayed a transphobic poster outside her office reading: "There are TWO genders: Male & Female. Trust The Science!". Newman has a transgender daughter, whom Greene called Newman's "biological son".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In April 2021, Greene supported a bill by Representative Mary Miller that would bar schools from allowing transgender students to use facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In June 2021, during an interview with Steve Bannon, Greene called transgender women "men playing dress up" and "literally having an identity crisis", saying, "They never will be [women], and I refuse to recognize them that way." Later in June, she said that schools teaching about LGBT people is "mental/emotional child abuse".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In April 2022, Greene criticized Ketanji Brown Jackson for not answering Senator Marsha Blackburn's question "what is a woman?" Greene said, "We came from Adam's rib. God created us with his hands. We may be the weaker sex, we are the weaker sex, but we are our partner's, our husband's wife."


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In May 2022, Greene claimed that straight people would go extinct within less than two centuries due to LGBT-inclusive educators, calling them "trans terrorists". She also falsely claimed that the perpetrator of the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting in Texas was transgender.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: On August 19, 2022, Greene introduced the Protect Children's Innocence Act, which would make giving transgender youth gender-affirming care (including puberty blockers and hormones) a felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison. Fourteen Republicans have co-sponsored the bill. In November 2022, after California state senator Scott Wiener, who is gay, called "groomer" "an anti-LGBTQ hate word" that "plays into the slander that LGBTQ people are pedophiles", Greene responded that the Protect Children's Innocence Act would stop "communist groomers" such as Wiener.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Greene opposes the Black Lives Matter movement and has called it a Marxist group. In a video, she compared Black Lives Matter activists to white nationalist participants at the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a rally she had previously called an "inside job". She ended one of her videos commenting: "The most mistreated group of people in the United States today are white males." After the murder of George Floyd, Greene posted on Facebook that his death "must be investigated and justice will be served", calling the video "heartbreaking". One year later, when Derek Chauvin was found guilty of Floyd's murder, Greene claimed the verdict was a result of jury intimidation by Black Lives Matter – which she compared to the Ku Klux Klan and called "the most powerful domestic terrorist organization" in the United States – and falsely asserted that Washington, D.C. was "completely dead" on the night of the verdict because people were "scared to go out" for "fear of riots". Greene denounced the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a civil rights and police reform bill, as an "Anti-Police bill", erroneously claiming it would bar law enforcement from using facial recognition.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In a recording obtained by "Politico", Greene said that Muslims who believe in Sharia law should not be in the U.S. government. She also contended that the Democratic Party is holding Black Americans as "slaves". Her comments on black people, Muslims, and Jews were denounced by Republican House leaders and a spokesman for National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Tom Emmer. Greene said that the election of Omar and Tlaib in the 2018 midterm elections was part of "an Islamic invasion of our government", and in 2021, she called the Squad supporters of "terrorism" and "Hamas" who "don't belong in Congress" and referred to them as the "Jihad Squad". In a late January 2021 interview with far-right British political commentator Katie Hopkins, Greene said that she would "love to trade [Hopkins] for some of our white people here that have no appreciation for our country".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: On April 16, 2021, it was reported that Greene and other House Republicans, such as Gaetz, Louie Gohmert, and Paul Gosar, were interested in launching an America First Caucus, and Gohmert confirmed Greene's involvement to reporters. According to a leaked seven-page document on the aims of the caucus, they believe that "America is a nation with a border, and a culture, strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions." The document also stated the caucus would "work towards an infrastructure that reflects the architectural, engineering and aesthetic value that befits the progeny of European architecture." House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy indirectly criticized the caucus as pushing "nativist dog whistles". Greene's office said on April 16 that the new caucus would be launched "very soon", but the next day her spokesman said it was still in an early planning stage and that Greene was not "launching anything". Greene disavowed the caucus and stated she was not involved, calling it a "staff level draft proposal from an outside group that [she] hadn't read".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In February 2022, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized Greene for attending the America First Political Action Conference, saying there was no place in the party for "white supremacists or anti-Semitism".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Greene rejects the scientific consensus that climate change is caused primarily by human activity, explaining her position as: "maybe perhaps we live on a ball that rotates around the sun, that flies through the universe, and maybe our climate just changes." In an August 2022 interview, Greene said, "People die in the cold. This Earth warming, and carbon, is actually healthy for us. It helps us to feed people, it keeps people alive. ... We need to hold Democrats accountable and defund all of their climate garbage"—contrary to the scientific consensus that the costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Greene has said that she does not accept the scientific fact of evolution, calling it a "type of so-called science" and saying: "I don't believe in evolution. I believe in God."


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In an interview with gun activist Chris Dorr on October 27, 2020, a week before election day, Greene told viewers: "the only way you get your freedoms back is it's earned with the price of blood." On January 29, 2021, "The New York Times" detailed Greene's support for and past ties with extremist militia groups, including the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers; both groups had members participate in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In a January 2019 Facebook video, Greene said Pelosi is guilty of treason and that treason is a crime punishable by death. Greene made the video to promote a petition she started on We the People to impeach Pelosi for treason – a remedy that does not exist in the U.S. Constitution – due to her opposition to Trump's proposed border wall, as well as alleged support for sanctuary city policies. More than 140,000 people signed the petition. In February 2019 videos live-streamed on Facebook, Greene visited Pelosi's office and suggested that Pelosi would either be killed or imprisoned for treason. She then suggested that Representative Maxine Waters had also committed treason.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In 2018 and 2019, Greene's Facebook account expressed support for the execution of leading Democrats, including Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton, as well as support for the execution of FBI agents. For example, in response to an April 2018 post asking, "Now do we get to hang them?? Meaning H & O???", Greene's account responded: "Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off." Greene did not deny the authenticity of the reported content, but stated that the CNN article was "focused on my time before running for political office", that "teams of people manage my pages", and that CNN had reported on content that "did not represent my views".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: After the first round of voting in the 2020 Republican primary election, but before the Republican primary runoff election, "Politico" rereleased videos Greene published in which she expressed racist, antisemitic, and Islamophobic views. Her support for bigotry and the QAnon conspiracy theory in the videos were condemned, including by conservatives, such as McCarthy and Republican whip Steve Scalise, but they took no action against her, with McCarthy remaining neutral in the runoff. Some of Greene's social media postings and publications remained online through her 2020 campaign. After they drew attention in January 2021, she deleted them.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Greene has promoted multiple baseless conspiracy theories, including the claim that Hillary Clinton is responsible for a series of murders, that Democratic Party elites are responsible for a satanic child sex trafficking ring, that the government orchestrated the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, that the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, was a false flag attack intended to help introduce gun control, that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was staged, that Barack Obama secretly visited North Korea and sabotaged nuclear diplomacy to cover up untoward dealings with Iran, that Obama and his advisor Valerie Jarrett were secretly Muslim, and that the September 11 attack on the Pentagon was fake. Greene also promoted a false anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that the 2018 Camp Fire, a deadly wildfire in California, was caused by space lasers owned by the Rothschild family.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In May 2022, Greene promoted the conspiracy theory that the U.S. government is planning to force Americans to eat fake meat grown in a "peach tree dish" by Bill Gates.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In August 2022, Greene claimed that Democrats had designed the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri to boost Biden in the midterms because the Russian invasion of Ukraine had not achieved this, shortly before doubting he had been killed.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Greene has said there are links between Hillary Clinton and pedophilia and human sacrifice and in 2017 speculated that the Pizzagate conspiracy theory is real. Reviving the Clinton Kill List conspiracy theory, she claimed Clinton murdered her political enemies. In a video posted to YouTube in 2018, Greene suggested John F. Kennedy Jr.'s death in a plane crash in 1999 was a "Clinton murder" because he was a possible rival to her for a U.S. Senate election in New York.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In January 2021, Media Matters found a 2018 Facebook post that showed Greene agreeing with a conspiracy theory known as Frazzledrip, which asserts that there is a video of Hillary Clinton and her assistant Huma Abedin murdering a child in a satanic ritual and that Clinton later ordered a hit on a police officer to cover it up. Greene dismissed Media Matters' findings as the work of "Communists bloggers".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Greene supported the debunked far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, which she discovered through columnist Liz Crokin. In a 2017 video, she said that "many of the things" said on 4chan by the eponymous Q – whom she called a "patriot" – "have really proven to be true". She said, "There's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president to do it."


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: According to her author biography page, Greene wrote 59 articles for the now-defunct conspiracy theory website American Truth Seekers, including one linking the Democratic Party to "Child Sex, Satanism, and the Occult". When she ran for the House of Representatives in 2020, she distanced herself from that conspiracy theory and said she had not referred to Q or QAnon during her campaign. She said she no longer had a connection with QAnon and mentioned having found "misinformation".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In a 2017 video posted to Facebook, Greene expressed doubt that the perpetrator of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, a large-scale incident she believes was intended as an attack on the right to bear arms, acted alone. She claimed that the August 2017 Charlottesville white nationalist rally, in which a counter-protester was killed in a car attack, was an "inside job". She said the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand were a false flag for the same end.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In a 2018 interview, Greene expressed support for a conspiracy theory that a plane did not hit the Pentagon during the September 11 attacks; she referred to "the so-called plane that crashed into the Pentagon" and said that "it's odd there's never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon," despite an abundance of evidence. On another occasion, at a conservative conference in 2018, Greene said 9/11 was part of a U.S. government plot. Following an August 2020 Media Matters report on her comments, Greene wrote on Twitter: "Some people claimed a missile hit the Pentagon. I now know that is not correct." She has also claimed that Democratic National Committee staff member Seth Rich was murdered by the MS-13 gang on Obama's behalf. According to Greene, Obama is secretly a Muslim; in actuality, he is a Christian.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In a February 2019 interview, Greene suggested that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been replaced in public appearances by a body double. A QAnon-related conspiracy theory claimed that Ginsburg had died years earlier and that Democrats used a body double to conceal her death so they could hold onto her Supreme Court seat during Trump's presidency. Ginsburg actually died on September 18, 2020, during Trump's presidency, and Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett as her successor.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In a 2018 Facebook post found by Media Matters in January 2021, Greene claimed that the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, was an organized false flag operation. In another post, she claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was also a false flag operation. In another Facebook post later in 2018 she wrote: "I am told that Nancy Pelosi tells Hillary Clinton several times a month that 'we need another school shooting' in order to persuade the public to want strict gun control." Parkland shooting survivors such as David Hogg and Cameron Kasky, as well as Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the Parkland shooting, condemned Greene's remarks and demanded that she resign from Congress. Greene called Hogg, who advocates gun control, "#littleHitler" and, in a 2019 interview with a gun-rights group, denounced him as an "idiot" who is trained "like a dog". A March 2019 video shows Greene following and taunting Hogg, accusing him of using children for his cause. After the encounter, she called him a "coward" and falsely claimed he is funded by George Soros. The website "Snopes" found the video uploaded by Guttenberg and others was the second incident in which Greene targeted Hogg. Both occurred on March 25, 2019, and Greene live-streamed the first to her Facebook account. The second video was uploaded to Greene's YouTube account in January 2020.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In January 2021, a Greene staffer threatened to have WRCB-TV reporter Meredith Aldis arrested after Aldis tried to ask Greene a question at a town hall event about her harassment of Hogg.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Soon after these comments came to light, Representative Jahana Hayes, whose district includes Sandy Hook, circulated a letter to the House Republican leadership urging them not to seat Greene on the Education Committee. Hogg called for Greene to be expelled from Congress, saying that McCarthy tacitly supported Greene by not taking actions to sanction her.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In the aftermath of the Robb Elementary School shooting in May 2022, Greene claimed that the shooter had engaged in cross-dressing, echoing similar claims by right-wing politicians and media figures that the shooter was transgender. Greene went on to claim without evidence that the shooter was in the same Discord server as the teen accused of carrying out the 2022 Buffalo shooting and that there was a third party who "groomed" both young men, adding that there were suggestions that this groomer was a former FBI agent.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Greene has criticized the presence of the Georgia Guidestones, a 19-foot high megalithic granite monument installed in Elberton in 1982, an attraction that drew 20,000 annual visitors. In an interview with Infowars conspiracist Alex Jones on July 7, 2022, the day they were dynamited by unknown saboteurs, she said ecumenical texts inscribed on it represented a nefarious future of "population control" as envisioned by the "hard left". She added, "There is a war of good and evil going on, and people are done with globalism".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In 2018, Greene shared a video, "With Open Gates: The Forced Collective Suicide of European Nations" repeating the antisemitic white genocide conspiracy theory that Zionists are conspiring to flood Europe with migrants to replace the native white populations. The video, uncovered by Media Matters, said that those supporting refugees are using "immigrant pawns" to commit "the biggest genocide in human history". In sharing the video, Greene wrote that: "This is what the UN wants all over the world". The white genocide conspiracy theory has been associated with white supremacy and espouses the unsubstantiated belief that white people, in a "Great Replacement", will eventually become a minority in Europe and North America due to declining white birth rates and high rates of immigration. Greene has also falsely called George Sorosa Jewish businessman and Holocaust survivora Nazi. She promoted the conspiracy theory that Soros' family collaborated with the Nazis in Hungary and is "trying to continue what was not finished".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In 2018, Greene's Facebook account shared a conspiracy theory about the Camp Fire, a deadly Californian wildfire, suggesting that it could have been caused by "space solar generators" in a scheme involving California Governor Jerry Brown, companies PG&E, Rothschild & Co, and Solaren. The Rothschild family has been the subject of numerous antisemitic conspiracy theories since at least the 19th century; the theories allege they are an "international cabal of Jewish bankers". For these comments, Greene was condemned by the Republican Jewish Coalition, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and Christians United for Israel, with the latter group stating that Greene had promoted "wild anti-Semitic conspiracy theories". Meanwhile, Representative Jimmy Gomez and the Jewish Democratic Council of America called for Greene to be expelled from Congress.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Solaren, a solar energy company, noted several fundamental problems with the conspiracy theory, including that its space-based solar power system did not beam power using the visible light part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and so could not be observed as the "blue beams of light" referenced by the theory; that the system does not use lasers, and so could not have "laser beams"; that Solaren's power contract with PG&E ended in 2015; and that by 2021, Solaren had not launched any solar power satellites into space at all, let alone had one in space in 2018.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: On April 28, 2022, in an interview with the far-right Church Militant, Greene attacked the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, accusing them of "destroying" America with their work regarding immigrants and refugees and claiming that Satan was "controlling the church". Her statement was widely condemned by both Democrats and Republicans. Catholic League President Bill Donohue called Greene a "disgrace" and demanded that Congress sanction her. He added, "Greene has a history of offending African Americans and Jews, so bigotry is something that is apparently baked into her". Her attack was compared with other instances of anti-Catholicism in the United States.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Greene was baptized, raised, and married as a member of the Roman Catholic Church, but stopped attending Catholic mass services in reaction to Catholic Church sexual abuse cases. After that, Greene rebaptized in 2011 into North Point Community Church, an evangelical megachurch network based in Alpharetta, in a baptism published in an online video.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In response to Donohue's statement, Greene released a statement detailing her decision to leave the Church upon her realization that she "could not trust the Church leadership to protect my children from pedophiles and that they harbored monsters even in their own ranks." She claimed that her criticisms were limited to Church leadership and did not apply to lay Catholics.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Democrats have condemned Greene's incendiary statements and promotion of conspiracy theories. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz introduced a motion to remove Greene from her committee assignments, saying that Greene's behavior is "appalling" and "has helped fuel domestic terrorism, endangered lives of her colleagues and brought shame on the entire House of Representatives". On February 1, 2021, House majority leader Steny Hoyer gave McCarthy and other Republican House leaders an ultimatum: unless they stripped Greene of her committee seats within 72 hours, the Democrats would bring Wasserman Schultz's motion before the full House. In turn, McCarthy called some of Greene's comments "deeply disturbing".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: With Republican officials under mounting pressure to denounce Greene, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement to "The Hill" in which he attacked "loony lies and conspiracy theories" as a "cancer for the Republican Party". The statement did not name Greene, but reporting described the statement as "unmistakably about" and "clearly targeted" at Greene. McConnell confirmed it the following day, referring to his comments on Greene and adding: "I think I adequately spoke out about how I feel". His statement said: "Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.'s airplane is not living in reality." In response, Greene tweeted that the Republican Party's only problem are "weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully". After McConnell's statement, several other Republican senators voiced criticisms of Greene. Mitt Romney said that the Republican Party's "big tent is not large enough to both accommodate conservatives and kooks". Kevin Cramer said that he would have "a hard time supporting ... [Greene] being on the Education Committee" in the light of "her positions on the school shootings being staged", adding: "Real authority has moral authority." Both Florida senators condemned the idea that the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting might have not have been real; Marco Rubio said that anyone arguing it was a false flag is "either deranged or a sadist". Greene used the criticism for a fundraising push, saying, "Democrats are trying to expel me from Congress" and telling her supporters to "StandWithMTG".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: McCarthy met with Greene on February 2 and then held meetings with the House GOP Steering Committee, which is responsible for committee assignments for Republican members of the House. No decision was made that day, but Greene was a major topic of discussion for the Republican Congressional Caucus meeting on February 3, along with the fate of Representative Liz Cheney after her vote in favor of Trump's second impeachment. Greene retained Trump's support, which presented McCarthy with the problem of having to manage the expectations of the Republican Party's various factions in dealing with Cheney and Greene.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: As controversy grew about her previous comments, Greene removed her old social media posts and spoke before the House Republican Conference on February 3, 2021, to state that her social media content did not reflect who she is, prompting a standing ovation. In lieu of total removal from her assignments, McCarthy stated that he had suggested Greene be moved to the Small Business Committee. That day, the Democratic-controlled House Rules Committee passed Wasserman Schultz's motion to remove Greene from her committee assignments. McCarthy indicated his conference would not act against Greene. Pelosi chastised McCarthy for acquiescing to Greene, referring to him as "McCarthy (Q-CA)", in reference to the QAnon conspiracy theory. On February 4, the full House voted to remove Greene from her committee assignments. The vote was 230 to 199, with 11 Republicans joining all Democrats. After the vote, Greene described herself as "freed", calling the committees part of "basically a tyrannically controlled government". She is unlikely to be able to serve on a committee for the rest of her term in the 117th Congress.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Republican Jewish Coalition condemned Greene's statements.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: On February 9, 2021, Shaun Holmes, the father of a 10-year-old boy with Down syndrome, confronted Greene at a Whitfield County Republican Party meeting. Asked about her use of the word "retard" to refer to individuals with the syndrome, Greene said: "I guess it was a slang word. You can actually look it up in the dictionary", adding: "I do apologize for that being offensive to anyone."


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In February 2021, CrossFit attempted to distance itself from Greene, who once owned an affiliated gym and is an avid proponent of CrossFit fitness regimens. CrossFit spokesperson Andrew Weinstein told "BuzzFeed News": "CrossFit supports respectful fact-based political dialogue to address our common challenges, and we strongly oppose the loathsome and dangerous lies attributed to Ms. Greene."


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: On May 21, 2021, Common Cause filed an FEC complaint against Greene for an alleged violation of McCain–Feingold campaign finance provisions, accusing her of "implicit" unlawful solicitation of unlimited contributions in an advertisement appearance made on behalf of a super PAC that targeted Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. In the ad, she calls on viewers to "fight back now, before it's too late" before a separate voice-over asks them to contribute to the PAC seconds thereafter.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: During her 2020 campaign and the beginning of her first term in Congress, Greene became one of the most recognizable names in the GOP. On January 29, 2021, Greene stated she had raised $1.6 million amid criticism from Democratic lawmakers. In a February 2021 poll by YouGov, shortly after her removal from her committee assignments, 45% of surveyed adult U.S. citizens viewed her unfavorably, 33% didn't know, and 21% viewed her favorably. In a mid-May 2021 poll by Morning Consult, the majority of GOP voters surveyed had either never heard of or had no opinion on Greene; among those who had an opinion, Greene was seen overall more favorably than unfavorably. , opinions on Greene among her constituents in the 14th district are split.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In his 2021 memoir, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a Republican, denounced Greene for her "baseless, factless, absurd, and dangerous" rhetoric, including her support of QAnon.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In 2022, the White House criticized Greene for attacking its student loan forgiveness program, calling her hypocritical since she accepted forgiveness of a $183,504 loan from the Paycheck Protection Program.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Greene's Twitter accounts have been suspended and locked many times for violating Twitter's policies. Her Twitter account was temporarily suspended five times in 2021, from manual reviews or automated systems. Her personal account was permanently suspended for spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation; her official congressional account remains active.<ref name="Scott_1/3/2022"></ref> Her personal account was reinstated in November 2022, weeks after Elon Musk acquired Twitter.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Greene's personal Twitter account was locked for 12 hours on January 17, 2021 "for multiple violations of our civic integrity policy". Twitter's action was based on a company policy it had used to remove thousands of QAnon-related accounts after the storming of the United States Capitol. Before the suspension, Greene's posts included false claims about voting fraud and statements blaming electoral officials in Georgia for their failure to act on such claims. Upon returning to Twitter, she criticized the company: "Contrary to how highly you think of yourself and your moral platitude, you are not the judge of humanity. God is."


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: As of March 19, 2021, Greene was barred from blocking anyone on her public Twitter or any other social media account while in office and was forced to pay $10,000 to cover legal fees for MeidasTouch, whose co-founder says it will donate the money to two nonprofit organizations. This resulted from an out-of-court settlement between Greene and MeidasTouch after MeidasTouch sued Greene for violating the political action committee's First Amendment rights when she blocked it from posting on her Twitter page.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In July 2022, Twitter labeled two tweets by Greene, in which she misgendered and deadnamed Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, as violating their rules on hateful conduct, but did not delete them, saying it believed it was in the public's interest for the tweets to remain accessible.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In early 2022, Greene said that under a provision of a state law, several Georgia electors had filed papers seeking to remove her from the 2022 Republican primary ballot as unqualified for office. Electors alleged she had been involved in assisting the 2021 United States Capitol attack. On April 1, 2022, Greene filed a federal lawsuit in which she vigorously denied the allegations and sought to have the law blocked as unconstitutional. The law allows a candidate to be removed from a ballot after review by an administrative law judge and the Georgia Secretary of State. A federal judge denied her challenge on April 18, requiring her to give evidence four days later. She testified for three hours on April 22. On May 6, the judge ruled that she was eligible for reelection, but the final decision belongs to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: On January 30, 2021, the first episode of "Saturday Night Live"s 46th season featured a cold open where a caricature of Greene, played by Cecily Strong, espoused debunked conspiracy theories and discussed how she "told [her] supporters that they should physically murder Nancy Pelosi". After Greene opposed the Equality Act, her character featured again in February on the "Weekend Update" sketch, wherein she misspelled "science", compared herself to Pennywise the Dancing Clown, pulled a handgun on co-anchor Colin Jost, and claimed to be possessed by a demon.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: On June 15, 2021, after Greene's visit to the Holocaust Museum, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" host Jimmy Kimmel called Greene "human excrement", "Klan Mom", and "the sorriest excuse for a congresswoman we've ever had", comparing her understanding of the Holocaust to that of a sixth-grader and digitally imposing a toothbrush mustache over her apology video. "Daily Show" host Trevor Noah called her "your crazy aunt's even crazier friend" who has become "notorious for saying absolutely anything with zero shame". "The View" co-host Joy Behar called Greene's apology "as empty as her head" and jokingly remarked, "wait till she hears about slavery!"


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: On February 9, 2022, while discussing the police guarding the Capitol building, Greene called them "gazpacho police", confusing the cold Spanish soup with the Gestapo. The incident met with a wave of jokes about her choice of words. A similar incident occurred in May 2022, with Greene calling a petri dish a "peach tree dish" during a livestream.


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: In April 2022, Kimmel said of Greene, "Where is Will Smith when you really need him?" in response to Greene accusing Republicans who supported then-Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson of being "pro-pedophile", referencing the incident in which Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock at the Academy Awards. Greene accused Kimmel of threatening violence against her and tweeted that she contacted the Capitol Police. Greene had previously refused to honor the Capitol Police in June 2021, when she voted against rewarding them with the Congressional Gold Medal for defending the Capitol Building during the 2021 United States Capitol attack. On April 8, Nick Dyer, Greene's spokesman, said that "threats against Congresswoman Greene invoking Jimmy Kimmel have been coming into our office."


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Greene married Perry Greene in 1995 while in college. They have three children. Perry Greene announced in September 2022 that he was filing for divorce and that their marriage was "irretrievably broken".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: Greene was baptized, raised, and married as a member of the Roman Catholic Church, but stopped attending Mass services in reaction to the child sexual abuse crisis in the church. After that, Greene rebaptized in 2011 into North Point Community Church, an evangelical megachurch network based in Alpharetta, in a baptism published in an online video. Greene speaks often about her faith and has said that she wants to bring "my faith and my family values to Washington".


title: Marjorie Taylor Greene

text: According to ABC affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta, in May 2021, Greene broke Georgia law by claiming two homestead exemptions in taxes on her properties, an older home and one she bought in the Georgia's 14th congressional district when she ran for office; only one exemption may legally be claimed. Greene responded that the issue was "paperwork, which is being taken care of".


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while also being used in various midfield roles. Widely considered one of the best players of his generation, Rooney is the record goalscorer for both the England national team and Manchester United, as well as holding the record for the most appearances of any outfield player for the England national team.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney joined the Everton youth team at the age of nine and made his professional debut for the club in 2002 at the age of 16. He spent two seasons at the Merseyside club before moving to Manchester United for £25.6 million in the 2004 summer transfer window, where he won 16 trophies and became the only English player, alongside teammate Michael Carrick, to win the Premier League, FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, League Cup, UEFA Europa League, and FIFA Club World Cup. He scored 253 goals for United in all competitions, making him the club's top goalscorer of all time; his 183 Premier League goals for United is the third-most scored by a player in that competition for any single club, behind only Harry Kane (currently 188 goals for Tottenham Hotspur) and Sergio Agüero (184 goals for Manchester City). Rooney's 208 Premier League goals make him that competition's second-top scorer of all time. He also has the third-highest number of assists in the Premier League, with 103.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney made his senior international debut for England in February 2003, aged 17, and is England's youngest-ever goalscorer. He played at UEFA Euro 2004 and scored four goals, briefly becoming the youngest goalscorer in the history of the European Championship. Rooney later featured at the 2006, 2010 and 2014 World Cups, and was widely regarded as his country's best player. He has won the England Player of the Year award four times, in 2008, 2009, 2014, and 2015. With 53 goals in 120 international caps, Rooney is England's second-most-capped player (behind Peter Shilton) and all-time record goalscorer.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney won the PFA Players' Player of the Year and the FWA Footballer of the Year awards for the 2009–10 season, and he has won the Premier League Player of the Month award five times throughout his career. He came fifth in the vote for the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or, and he was named in the FIFA FIFPro World XI for 2011. He won the Goal of the Season award by the BBC's "Match of the Day" poll on three occasions, and his February 2011 bicycle kick against city rivals Manchester City won the Premier League 20 Seasons Awards Best Goal award. Rooney is set to receive the "Freedom of Derby" award for remaining loyal to Derby County and helping the club through financial difficulties and administration.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Wayne Mark Rooney was born in the Croxteth area of Liverpool on 24 October 1985, the son of Jeanette Marie (née Morrey) and Thomas Wayne Rooney. He is of Irish descent through his father, and was brought up as a Roman Catholic with his younger brothers Graham and John. He and his brothers attended Our Lady and St Swithin's Primary School and De La Salle School. John also later became a footballer. Rooney grew up supporting Everton. He admired Brazilian striker Ronaldo, with Rooney stating that "as an out-and-out forward [Ronaldo] was probably the best".


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney began playing for Liverpool Schoolboys and scored 72 goals in one season, a record which stood until May 2010. At the age of nine, Rooney played for Copplehouse boys' club in the local Walton and Kirkdale junior league and scored 99 goals in his final season before being spotted by Everton scout Bob Pendleton. Rooney joined Everton at age nine, and was the Everton mascot for the Merseyside derby against Liverpool as an 11-year-old. In the 1995–96 season, he scored 114 goals in 29 games for Everton's under-10s and 11s, and by the age of 15, he was playing for the under-19s. He scored eight goals in eight games during Everton's run to the FA Youth Cup Final in 2002. This included one goal in the final defeat against Aston Villa and, upon scoring, he revealed a T-shirt that read, "Once a Blue, always a Blue." Rooney was included in Everton's first team squad for their training camp in Austria in the summer of 2002 and scored his first senior goal in a 3–1 friendly victory over SC Weiz on 15 July.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney was an unused substitute in Everton's 1–0 away win over Southampton on 20 April 2002. He made his senior debut on 17 August in a 2–2 home draw against Tottenham Hotspur, starting the match and assisting the first goal by Mark Pembridge. He became the second youngest first-team player in Everton history behind Joe Royle. In that match, he was booed by the Spurs fans who shouted "Who are ya?" whenever he touched the ball. His first senior goals came on 2 October when he scored twice in a 3–0 away win over Wrexham in the second round of the League Cup. These goals meant that Rooney was Everton's youngest-ever goalscorer at the time.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 19 October, five days before his 17th birthday, Rooney scored a last-minute winning goal against Arsenal. The goal ended Arsenal's 30-match unbeaten run, and also made Rooney the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history, a record that has since been surpassed by James Milner and James Vaughan. He scored in a 1–0 away win over Leeds United 15 days later.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: In December, Rooney was named 2002's BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year. Six days after claiming the award he scored the winning goal against Blackburn Rovers in a 2–1 home win. His first career red card came on Boxing Day in a 1–1 away draw against Birmingham City for a late challenge on Steve Vickers. In January 2003, Rooney signed his first professional contract, which made him one of world football's highest-paid teenagers. Rooney's first goal of 2003 came on 23 March, netting Everton's only goal in a 2–1 loss at Arsenal. In April, he scored a goal in Everton's 2–1 home win over Newcastle United, before hitting a last-minute winner against Aston Villa in another 2–1 home win. He ended his debut season with eight goals in 37 appearances in all competitions for the Toffees.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney scored his first goal of the 2003–04 season in a 2–2 away draw against Charlton Athletic on 26 August 2003. He did not find the net again until December when he scored in a 2–1 away win over Portsmouth, and a 3–2 home win over Leicester City. His final goal of 2003 came on his 50th league appearance, netting in a 1–0 home win over Birmingham City on 28 December. On 21 February 2004, Rooney scored two goals in a Premier League game for the first time in a 3–3 away draw against Southampton. He scored the sole goal in a 1–0 win over Portsmouth on 13 March, before scoring in a 1–1 away draw against Leicester City one week later. He scored his final goal of the season in a 1–1 away draw against Leeds United on 13 April.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: In July, Everton offered Rooney a new five-year contract valued at £50,000 per week, the most lucrative ever offered by the club. Amidst increasing speculation linking Rooney with a transfer, Everton chairman Bill Kenwright admitted the club's financial situation meant a transfer would "revitalise" the club. Everton rejected a bid of £20 million from Newcastle, and Rooney submitted a transfer request on 27 August, with Moyes saying he would not leave unless the club got the right price for him. He ultimately signed for Manchester United at the end of the month after an initial £20 million deal was reached, with an additional £7m in contingency payments, with Rooney signing a five-year contract. It was the highest fee ever paid for a player under 20 years old; Rooney was still only 18 when he left Everton. Sir Alex Ferguson, then manager of United, said that "There were plenty of eyebrows raised" when he persuaded the club's board of directors to sanction "a multi-million pound" move to try to sign Rooney from Everton. In an appearance on United's official podcast in 2020, Rooney revealed Everton had wanted him to sign for Chelsea to ensure a bigger transfer fee, while the mooted transfer to Newcastle would have seen a clause put in place for him to leave after a year to join United.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney was given the number 8 shirt upon his arrival at Old Trafford. He made his United debut on 28 September in a 6–2 home win over Fenerbahçe in the UEFA Champions League, scoring a hat-trick and laying on an assist. These goals made Rooney the youngest player to score a hat-trick in the Champions League aged 18 years 335 days. His first season with Manchester United, however, ended without winning a trophy as they could only manage a third-place finish in the league, and failed to progress to the last eight of the Champions League. United had more success in the cup competitions, but were edged out of the League Cup in the semi-finals by a Chelsea side who also won the Premier League title that season. Rooney's second goal in the FA Cup against Middlesbrough on 29 January 2005, a volley hit with the outside of his right foot from the edge of the 18-yard box, was named BBC Goal of the Season. A goalless draw with Arsenal in the FA Cup final was followed by a penalty shoot-out defeat. Rooney was United's top league scorer that season with 11 goals, and was credited with the PFA Young Player of the Year award.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: In September 2005, Rooney was sent off in a goalless Champions League match against Villarreal of Spain for sarcastically clapping the referee, who had booked him for an unintentional foul on an opponent. His first trophy with United came in the 2005–06 League Cup, and he was also named man of the match after scoring twice in the final as United won 4–0 against Wigan Athletic. His club finished the season as Premier League runners up, with their title hopes ended in late April when they lost 3–0 away to champions Chelsea. Rooney sustained a broken metatarsal in that game after a tackle from Paulo Ferreira. Rooney scored a total of 16 goals in 26 Premier League games in the 2005–06 season.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney was sent off in the 2006 Amsterdam Tournament match against Porto on 4 August 2006 after hitting Porto defender Pepe with his elbow. He was punished with a three-match ban by the FA, following their receipt of a 23-page report from referee Ruud Bossen that explained his decision. Rooney threatened to withdraw the FA's permission to use his image if they did not revoke the ban, although the FA had no power to make such a decision.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: During the first half of the 2006–07 season, Rooney endured a ten-game scoreless streak before scoring a hat-trick against Bolton Wanderers. He subsequently signed a two-year contract extension the following month that tied him to United until 2012. In April 2007, Rooney scored and provided an assist for Chris Eagles in a crucial 4–2 league win for Manchester United at his former club Everton, a game that also became notable for Rooney's response to fans that once cheered him.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: In the same month, Rooney scored two goals in an 8–3 aggregate Champions League quarter-final win over Roma and two more in the same competition at the end of April, in a 3–2 semi-final first leg victory over AC Milan. Rooney collected his first Premier League title winner's medal at the end of the 2006–07 season. He scored 14 league goals that season.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: In June 2007, Rooney was given squad number 10, last worn by Ruud van Nistelrooy. Rooney reasoned that he always loved that number. He fractured his left metatarsal in United's opening-day goalless draw against Reading on 12 August, the same injury he had suffered to his right foot in 2004. After being sidelined for six weeks, he returned and scored in United's 1–0 Champions League group stage win over Roma on 2 October. Rooney was again injured on 9 November, hurting his ankle during a training session and missing an additional two weeks. His next match after injury was against Fulham on 3 December, in which he played 70 minutes. Rooney missed ten games and finished the 2007–08 season with 18 goals (12 of them in the league), as United clinched the Premier League. In the Champions League's first-ever all-English final, United defeated league rivals Chelsea to win another trophy.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney played in 2008 UEFA Super Cup where United lost to Zenit Saint Petersburg and was unable to make an impact. On 4 October 2008, in an away win over Blackburn, Rooney became the youngest player to make 200 Premier League appearances. On 18 December, Rooney scored twice in the 5–3 semi-final victory over Japanese club Gamba Osaka in the FIFA Club World Cup, and, after scoring the winning goal as United beat LDU Quito 1–0 in the final in Yokohama, was awarded the Golden Ball as the best player in the tournament. On 14 January after scoring 54 seconds into the 1–0 win over Wigan, Rooney limped off with a hamstring injury in the eighth minute. On 25 April 2009, Rooney scored his final league goals of the season against Tottenham; United scored five goals in the second half to come from 2–0 down to win 5–2; Rooney scored two goals, set up two and provided the assist that led to the penalty for United's first goal. On 27 May, Rooney played against Barcelona in the 2009 Champions League Final in Rome, with United losing 2–0. Rooney ended the season with 20 goals in all competitions. Once again, he managed 12 goals in the league.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney scored in the 90th minute of the season-opening 2009 Community Shield, although United lost the game to Chelsea on penalties. He then scored the only goal of the first league game of the 2009–10 season against Birmingham City, taking his overall United tally to 99. On 22 August, he became the 20th Manchester United player to score 100 goals for the club, when he found the net twice in a 5–0 away win at Wigan. On 29 August, United played Arsenal at Old Trafford. Rooney scored a goal from the penalty spot to level the game after Andrey Arshavin had put the Gunners ahead. The game finished 2–1 to Manchester United after Abou Diaby scored an own goal. On 28 November 2009, Rooney scored his first hat-trick for three years in a 4–1 away victory against Portsmouth, with two of the goals being penalties. On 27 December 2009, he was awarded Man of the Match against Hull City. He was involved in all the goals scored in the game, hitting the opener and then giving away the ball for Hull's equalising penalty. He then forced Andy Dawson into conceding an own goal and then set up Dimitar Berbatov for United's third goal which gave them a 3–1 victory. On 30 December 2009, Rooney scored another goal as United beat Wigan 5–0 in their final game of the decade.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 23 January 2010, Rooney scored all four goals in Manchester United's 4–0 win over Hull; three of the goals came in the last ten minutes of the match. This was the first time in his career that he registered four goals in a single match. On 27 January 2010, he continued his scoring run by heading the winner in the second minute of stoppage time against derby rivals Manchester City. This gave United a 4–3 aggregate win, taking them into the final; it was his first League Cup goal since netting two in the 2006 final. On 31 January 2010, Rooney scored his 100th Premier League goal in a 3–1 win over Arsenal for the first time in the league at Emirates Stadium, notably his first Premier League goal also came against Arsenal. On 16 February 2010, Rooney hit his first European goals of the season, scoring two headers in the 3–2 away win against Milan in Manchester United's first ever win against them at the San Siro. On 28 February 2010, he scored another header against Aston Villa (his fifth consecutive headed goal) which resulted in Manchester United winning the League Cup final 2–1. In the second leg of United's European tie against Milan, Rooney scored a brace in a resounding 4–0 home victory, taking his tally of goals that season to 30. He then added two more to his tally five days later at Old Trafford, in a 3–0 league win over Fulham.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 30 March, during United's Champions League quarter-final first leg defeat against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, Rooney crumpled when he twisted his ankle in the last minute, hobbling off while Bayern were producing the buildup that led to their second goal. There were fears that he had received serious ligament damage or even a broken ankle, but it was announced that the injury was only slight ligament damage, and that he would be out for two to three weeks, missing United's crunch match with Chelsea and the return leg against Bayern the following week. The team list for second leg yielded a massive surprise when Rooney was given a starting place in the United line-up. Despite a 3–0 lead by the 41st minute, Bayern snatched a goal back and United were later forced down to 10 men after Rafael was sent-off. Bayern won the match after netting a second away-goal and Rooney was substituted after re-damaging his ankle. On 25 April, Rooney was named the 2010 PFA Players' Player of the Year.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 28 August 2010, Rooney scored his first goal of the season as he netted a penalty in a 3–0 home win over West Ham United. In October, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson stated at a press conference that Rooney wanted to quit the club. This came after a period of dispute as to the extent of Rooney's ankle injury, where Rooney had refuted Ferguson's claim that the injury was the reason Rooney had been dropped to the bench. Rooney and his representatives released a statement regarding his decision to leave the club, insisting it was not down to money but ambition. Following this statement, Rooney made a dramatic U-turn and agreed a new five-year contract at Manchester United until June 2015.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney made his return to the first team as a substitute against Wigan on 20 November. Four days later, he returned to the starting line-up and scored a penalty in a 1–0 away win over Rangers in the Champions League. He missed a penalty in a 1–0 home win over Arsenal on 13 December. His first goal of the season from open play came on 1 January 2011 in a 2–1 away win over West Bromwich Albion. On 1 February, Rooney scored twice and provided an assist for Nemanja Vidić in a 3–1 home win over Aston Villa. On 12 February, Rooney scored an overhead bicycle kick in the 78th minute of the Manchester derby, which proved to be the winning goal in a 2–1 win over Manchester City. After the match, Rooney said it was the best goal of his career, before Sir Alex Ferguson described the strike as the best goal he had ever witnessed at Old Trafford. The acrobatic strike from 10 yards out would win Rooney his third BBC Goal of the Season award, and it was shortlisted for the FIFA Puskás Award for Goal of the Year (ultimately won by Neymar). Two weeks later, he scored the third goal in a 4–0 away win over Wigan, before opening the scoring in a 2–1 away loss to Chelsea on 1 March. Rooney scored the second goal in a 2–0 home win over Arsenal in an FA Cup tie on 12 March.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 2 April, United came from two goals down as Rooney scored his first hat-trick of the season in a 4–2 away win over West Ham. This was his fifth hat-trick for Manchester United, whilst the second goal was his 100th in the Premier League for the club. He became the third Manchester United player to score 100 Premier League goals, joining Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. During Rooney's celebrations following his third goal, he swore into a pitchside camera and was subsequently charged by the FA for using offensive language. Rooney accepted the charge, but not the automatic two-match ban which was handed to him. He appealed against the length of the suspension, calling it "excessive", but failed to overturn the ban, which ruled him out of the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City on 16 April. The following game on 6 April saw Rooney score in a 1–0 away win against Chelsea in the Champions League quarter-final first leg. He followed this goal up with another strike in the semi-final first leg against German side Schalke 04 on 26 April, scoring the second of a 2–0 away win. This was the first time Rooney had returned to the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen since his sending off during the 2006 FIFA World Cup against Portugal.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 14 May 2011, Rooney scored a penalty for United to equalise in a 1–1 draw against Blackburn at Ewood Park in the penultimate game of the Premier League season – enough to secure a record 19th top division title for United, and giving Rooney his fourth Premier League title winner's medal.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney started the season with a goal in the first league game at The Hawthorns against West Bromwich Albion. Rooney played a one-two with Ashley Young before a sharp turn and finish from outside the box which found the bottom corner of the goal. He also scored in the second game of the season, at home to Tottenham Hotspur, when he headed in a Ryan Giggs cross. In late August, Rooney scored his 150th goal for United, the first of a hat-trick, helping to beat Arsenal 8–2. Rooney won man of the match, scoring two free kicks, a penalty, and also contributing an assist for Nani. On 10 September, Rooney scored another hat-trick in a 5–0 away win over Bolton Wanderers on 10 September, becoming only the fourth player in Premier League history to score a hat-trick in consecutive games. These goals brought him level with Bobby Charlton on seven United hat-tricks, joint fourth on the all-time list behind Denis Law, Jack Rowley and Dennis Viollet. After the fallout from his red card against Montenegro on international duty, Rooney was left out of the starting line-up against Liverpool on 15 October 2011. He returned to action on 18 October 2011, where he scored two goals in the Champions League group stage match against Oțelul Galați and surpassed his former teammate Paul Scholes as the highest-scoring Englishman in Champions League history.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 10 December, Rooney ended an 8-game goal drought with a brace against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a 4–1 win at Old Trafford. On 18 December, Rooney continued his goalscoring form, heading home the opening goal against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road; it was Manchester United's quickest of the season so far, as Rooney turned home Antonio Valencia's cross after just 52 seconds. On 21 December, Rooney scored his 130th Premier League goal in his 300th Premier League appearance against Fulham at Craven Cottage with a long-range effort that crashed in off the inside of the post in a 5–0 win.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 8 January, Rooney scored two goals in the 3–2 win over Manchester City at the City of Manchester Stadium in the FA Cup third round. With these goals, Rooney passed Mark Hughes in United's all-time top goalscorers table, moving up to seventh place overall with 164 goals. On 14 January, Rooney made a big contribution to his team in a 3–0 home win against Bolton. Although he missed a penalty, he did create two goals by assisting Paul Scholes for the first goal and Danny Welbeck for the second. On 5 February, Rooney scored twice from the penalty spot as United came back from a 3–0 deficit to draw 3–3 in a Premier League clash against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. On 11 February 2012, Rooney marked his 500th senior career game by scoring two goals as Manchester United beat rivals Liverpool 2–1 at Old Trafford. This was also his 350th game for United in all competitions. On 4 March, Rooney scored the first goal in a 3–1 away win against Tottenham at White Hart Lane and passed Joe Spence in Manchester United's all-time top goalscorers table, moving up to sixth place overall with 169 goals. He scored another brace in his next game, against Atletico Bilbao in the UEFA Europa League. On 11 March, Rooney scored the two goals that brought United the victory against West Brom in a 2–0 home win. On 15 March, Rooney scored in the second leg of the Europa League tie against Athletic Bilbao in Bilbao despite United losing 2–1 on the night and 5–3 on aggregate. In the final day of the season, Rooney put United ahead against Sunderland. Their rivals for the Premier League title, Manchester City, were losing 2–1 in their game going into injury time, so Rooney's winner looked like it would seal the title. However, Manchester City scored twice in injury time, the clincher a 94th-minute winner from Sergio Agüero, to take the trophy.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Despite starting the opening game of the 2012–13 season against Everton, Rooney was dropped to the bench for the second game against Fulham in favour of new signing Robin van Persie. After coming on for Shinji Kagawa in the 68th minute, Rooney suffered a severe gash to his right leg caused by Fulham's Hugo Rodallega that kept him out for four weeks. He made his comeback on 29 September in a 3–2 loss against Tottenham. Rooney scored his first goals of the season in a 4–2 league win at home to Stoke City on 20 October, where he reached his 200th club goal. On 7 November, he scored his first Champions League goal of the season, scoring a penalty in a 3–1 win against Braga. He scored twice and provided an assist in a 4–3 win against Reading on 1 December. He scored a brace in the Manchester derby at the City of Manchester Stadium on 9 December 2012 which United won 3–2. On 16 January, he scored a goal against West Ham in the FA Cup. A fortnight later, he scored twice in a 2–1 win against Southampton. He continued to score goals in FA Cup consecutive matches against Fulham and Chelsea. On 12 May, Sir Alex Ferguson announced, after United's 2–1 win against Swansea City, that Rooney had handed in his transfer request, a match in which Rooney also requested not to play.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 5 July 2013, new United manager David Moyes announced that Rooney was not for sale, after speculation that Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain were among the clubs looking to sign him. On 17 July 2013, Chelsea confirmed that they had made a bid for Rooney the previous day, thought to be in the region of £20 million, however it had been rejected by Manchester United. He suffered a head gash in training on 31 August after a collision with Phil Jones which kept him out of the match against Liverpool. He scored his first goal of the season with a free-kick in a 2–0 win against Crystal Palace. On 17 September, Rooney scored twice in a 4–2 win against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League, marking his 200th goal for United in the process. On 22 September, Rooney scored a free-kick at the 11th hour to grab a consolation goal in the 4–1 thrashing against their neighbour, Manchester City, in the Manchester derby. He scored a brace against Tottenham at White Hart Lane in a 2–2 draw on 1 December. He scored his 150th league goal for the club with a volley against Hull City on 26 December as United came back from 2–0 deficit to win the match 3–2; he also provided assists for the other two goals. On 21 February 2014, Rooney signed a contract extension with Manchester United, which will keep him at Old Trafford until 2019. Rooney provided one assist to Robin van Persie as Manchester United defeated Olympiacos in the second leg of Champions League round of 16 tie. On 22 March 2014, Rooney scored two goals for United at West Ham, moving him to third place on the club's all-time scoring list with 212 career goals. Rooney ended the season as both the top scorer and assist for Manchester United in the league with 17 goals and 10 assists. He also had the most assists in the 2013–14 Champions League with eight, beating second-placed Ángel Di María who had six.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: After the departure of Nemanja Vidić from Manchester United in July 2014, Rooney was named club captain by new manager Louis van Gaal ahead of the 2014–15 season. On the opening day of the Premier League season on 16 August, Rooney scored a bicycle kick to equalise against Swansea, although United eventually lost 1–2. On 27 September 2014, Rooney became the third highest Premier League goalscorer, moving ahead of Thierry Henry with 176 goals after he netted a goal in a 2–1 victory against West Ham. In the same match, he was sent off for a foul on Stewart Downing and received a three-game suspension. On 22 November 2014, Rooney scored for United in a 2–1 win against rivals Arsenal, their first away win of the season. He continued to score in the following match, in a 3–0 win over Hull City. On 14 December, he scored the opening goal in a 3–0 win over rivals Liverpool. On 26 December, Rooney scored two goals against Newcastle United, a match which his side won 3–1 – United's 50th successive Boxing Day match. For his performances, Rooney was voted as United's Player of the Month for December. During the season, Rooney was often deployed as a midfielder by Van Gaal.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 16 February 2015, in an FA Cup match against Preston North End, Rooney was the subject of criticism for having dived to get a penalty; United would go on to win the match 3–1. Replay seemed to have shown that Rooney had not come in contact with the goalkeeper. England manager Roy Hodgson, however, defended Rooney, saying that he was forced to take evasive action. Rooney later apologised for his behaviour, saying, "that was my chance to get a penalty. I had to use that." The penalty was also Rooney's first goal in 2015, ending a goalless run. On 28 February 2015, he scored a brace in a 2–0 victory over Sunderland, thus becoming the first player to score more than 10 goals in 11 successive seasons. On 15 March, Rooney scored the third goal in a 3–0 win over Tottenham. Rooney was Manchester United's top goalscorer for the 2014–15 campaign, but his tally of 14 was the lowest by a leading scorer since 1982. United's goal total of 62 was also its second-worst in the Premier League era.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 26 August 2015, Rooney ended an 878-minute scoreless streak by scoring a hat-trick in a 4–0 win (7–1 aggregate) over Belgian side Club Brugge in the second leg of their Champions League play-off. It was his first treble in European competition since his United debut against Fenerbahçe in 2004. He netted in a 3–0 win away to Everton on 17 October, putting him on 187 Premier League goals, joint second with Andy Cole and behind only Alan Shearer. After an injury-related absence, Rooney returned to the starting line-up on 19 December, making his 500th Manchester United appearance in a 2–1 home loss to Norwich City.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 2 January 2016, Rooney scored in a 2–1 win over Swansea to move ahead of Cole as the Premier League's second top scorer of all time, and with 238 he surpassed Denis Law in United's top scorers of all time, behind only Bobby Charlton's 249. Fifteen days later, he scored the only goal in a win against Liverpool at Anfield, his 176th league goal for United, taking Thierry Henry's record for most goals for one club in the Premier League. After being ruled out since 13 February due to a knee injury, Rooney returned to the starting line-up in a 1–0 home win over Aston Villa on 16 April. On 21 May, Rooney captained Manchester United in the 2016 FA Cup Final against Crystal Palace. He played the full 120 minutes in central midfield, winning the competition for the first time in his career after a 2–1 extra time victory at Wembley Stadium.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 7 August 2016, Rooney set up Jesse Lingard's opening goal in Manchester United's 2–1 victory over Leicester City in the 2016 FA Community Shield, lifting his second title as the club's captain. On 6 November 2016, Rooney became only the third player ever to achieve 100 Premier League assists, setting up both of Zlatan Ibrahimović's goals in a 3–1 away win against Swansea City. On 24 November, Rooney overtook Ruud van Nistelrooy to become Manchester United's all-time leading scorer in European competitions with 39 goals, opening the scoring in a 4–0 home win over Feyenoord in the Europa League.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 7 January 2017, Rooney scored against Reading in the third round of the FA Cup to equal Bobby Charlton as Manchester United's top goalscorer of all time. Rooney's goal was his 249th in 543 games for Manchester United, reaching the landmark in 215 matches and four seasons quicker than Charlton. On 21 January 2017, Rooney finally surpassed Charlton to become the outright leading scorer for Manchester United after scoring his 250th goal for the club and the equaliser from a free kick against Stoke City at the Bet365 Stadium in the game's final minutes to secure a 1–1 draw. On 29 January, prior to playing his part in the 4–0 triumph in the FA Cup fourth round against Wigan Athletic, Rooney was presented with a commemorative Golden Boot to acknowledge him becoming the club's all-time leading goal scorer. It was presented by Charlton whose record Rooney broke. On 14 May 2017, in a 2–1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on the last day of the Premier League season, Rooney had the distinction of scoring the final goal at Spurs' White Hart Lane stadium. In his last game for Manchester United, Rooney came on as a substitute as United beat Ajax 2–0 to win the UEFA Europa League. He finished his Manchester United career as the all-time top scorer for the club with 253 goals, winning five Premier League titles and each of the Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: After much speculation over the previous few months, it was confirmed on 9 July 2017 that Rooney would return to his boyhood club, Everton, on a two-year contract, after Manchester United allowed him to leave on a free transfer. Rooney was assigned the number 10 shirt for the 2017–18 campaign. He made his first official appearance on his return to the club in a 1–0 win over MFK Ružomberok in the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round first leg on 27 July. He scored on his second Everton league debut on 12 August, when his club beat Stoke City 1–0 at Goodison Park. Nine days later, Rooney scored his 200th Premier League goal in a 1–1 away draw against Manchester City, becoming the second player to reach this landmark, Alan Shearer being the first. On 29 November, Rooney scored his first hat-trick for Everton in 4–0 win over West Ham; his third goal was a strike from inside his own side's half of the field – over 60 yards from goal – scoring as goalkeeper Joe Hart left the penalty area to clear the ball.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: In a 3–1 win against Swansea City on 18 December, Rooney scored a penalty and provided the assist for Gylfi Sigurðsson's goal, which put him ahead of Frank Lampard as the player with the third-highest amounts of assists in the Premier League, with 103. He appeared on Sky Sports' "Monday Night Football" as a pundit in February 2018, garnering praise from "The Guardian" writer Sachin Nakrani for being "articulate, intelligent, insightful and honest". On the show he named Anfield, home of Manchester United's rivals Liverpool, as his hardest test, with Rooney stating "I never enjoyed playing there".


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 28 June 2018, Rooney signed a three-and-a-half-year deal with D.C. United of Major League Soccer, and was given the number 9 jersey. He officially completed his move to the Washington-based team when the US mid-season transfer window opened on 10 July.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 14 July, in a 3–1 win against the Vancouver Whitecaps, Rooney made his debut for United, coming on for Darren Mattocks in the 59th minute, and provided an assist for Paul Arriola. Rooney's debut came on the unveiling of Audi Field, D.C. United's new home stadium. Rooney was named captain after three games by manager Ben Olsen, with the consent of former captain Steve Birnbaum. His first goal for the club came on 28 July in his first game with the armband, slotting past his former Manchester United teammate, goalkeeper Tim Howard, securing a 2–1 win over the Colorado Rapids at Audi Field; he left the game with a broken nose after a clash of heads with Axel Sjöberg.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: After putting in positive performances for D.C. United, including a last-ditch tackle and pass for the game-winning goal against Orlando on 12 August, and helping them to a play-off spot, he was named 'MLS Player of the Month' for the month of October 2018. His team made the 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs but were knocked out at home to the Columbus Crew SC in the first round, in which his attempt in the penalty shootout was saved by Zack Steffen. At the end of the 2018 MLS campaign, he was named as D.C. United's MVP and golden boot winner, having scored 12 goals in 21 matches.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 16 March 2019, Rooney notched his first hat-trick for D.C. United in a 5–0 home win over Real Salt Lake, also contributing an assist, and later in the season he scored his 300th career goal at club level in a 2–1 away defeat to Houston Dynamo. On 27 June, Rooney scored from inside his own half for the third time in his career with a match-winning strike from 10 yards behind the halfway line to lob Orlando City goalkeeper Brian Rowe. He played his final match for the club on 19 October, in a 5–1 away defeat to Toronto FC, in the first round of the playoffs. He ended his time in the MLS with 23 goals and 15 assists in 48 regular-season appearances.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 6 August 2019, with two years left on his contract with D.C. United, Rooney agreed a deal to return to England as a player-coach with EFL Championship side Derby County in January 2020. Rooney was instantly named captain and his debut came on 2 January as he started and assisted the first goal in a 2–1 win against Barnsley. Rooney scored six goals in twenty four appearances, including the deciding goals in a 2–1 victory against Reading and a 1–0 win at Preston North End, as Derby finished the season in 10th.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney's first goal of the 2020–21 season came in the fourth match as his 87th-minute free kick proved the difference in 1–0 win away to Norwich City. It was Derby's first win of the season and took the club out of the bottom three after opening the campaign with three successive defeats. Results did not improve however, with manager Phillip Cocu leaving by mutual consent after a 1–0 home defeat to Queens Park Rangers. Rooney in particular came under criticism for his performances in the opening stages of the season. It was announced on 26 November that Rooney, who had replaced Cocu as part of a four-man interim management team, would take sole control of the side for the upcoming match against Wycombe Wanderers and had removed himself from the playing squad, admitting that it was "possible" he had played his final game. On 15 January 2021, he retired from playing after being appointed permanent manager of Derby.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney was eligible to represent the Republic of Ireland, through his Irish paternal grandparents. In 2015, he confirmed that he had rejected an approach from Ireland at the age of 16, describing himself as "English through and through".


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney became the youngest player to play for England when he earned his first cap in a friendly defeat against Australia at the Boleyn Ground on 12 February 2003 at 17 years and 111 days, coming on at half-time as manager Sven-Göran Eriksson fielded a different team in each half. On 6 September of that year, aged 17 years and 317 days, he became the youngest player to score for England, equalising in a 2–1 away victory over Macedonia in a UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying match.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: His first tournament action was at UEFA Euro 2004, in which he became the youngest scorer in competition history on 17 June 2004, when he scored twice in England's second group match against Switzerland, which ended in a 3–0 victory; however, this record was topped by Swiss midfielder Johan Vonlanthen four days later. Rooney added two more goals in the competition in England's final group match on 21 June, a 4–2 win over Croatia, but subsequently suffered an injury in the quarter-final match against hosts Portugal on 24 June, and England were eliminated on penalties. After scoring four goals in four matches, Rooney was named in UEFA's Team of the Tournament.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Following a foot injury in an April 2006 Premier League match, Rooney faced a race to fitness for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. England attempted to hasten his recovery with the use of an oxygen tent, which allowed Rooney to enter a group match against Trinidad and Tobago and start the next match against Sweden. However, he never got back into game shape and went scoreless as England bowed out in the quarter-finals, again on penalty kicks.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney was red-carded in the 62nd minute of the quarter-final for stamping on Portugal defender Ricardo Carvalho as both attempted to gain possession of the ball. Rooney seemed to be pulled back by Carvalho, and then trod on his opponent's groin as the Chelsea defender was on the floor trying to win the ball, an incident that occurred right in front of the Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Portugal winger (and Rooney's Manchester United teammate) Cristiano Ronaldo protested his actions, and was in turn pushed by Rooney. Elizondo sent Rooney off, after which Ronaldo was seen winking at the Portugal bench. Rooney denied intentionally targeting Carvalho in a statement on 3 July, adding,


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Elizondo confirmed the next day that Rooney was dismissed solely for the infraction on Carvalho. Rooney was fined CHF5,000 for the incident.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney top scored for England in their 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign with nine goals; one behind the UEFA section's overall top goalscorer, Theofanis Gekas of Greece. On 14 November 2009, Rooney captained England for the first time in a pre-tournament friendly with Brazil.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney was given the England number 10 shirt by manager Fabio Capello ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. During the tournament, England drew 0–0 in their second group match against Algeria on 18 June, and the England players were booed off the pitch by their supporters; Rooney was at the centre of controversy when he criticised the England fans for booing the team after the match, and subsequently apologised for his actions. Rooney went scoreless throughout the tournament, and England were eliminated in the second round, following a 4–1 defeat to Germany on 27 June.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: The Euro 2012 qualification campaign went well for England, as they qualified at the top of their group, winning five and drawing three games. Rooney scored three goals, one against Switzerland and two against Bulgaria. In the last qualifier against Montenegro (2–2), Rooney was sent off for a tackle on Miodrag Džudović in the 74th minute. It was anticipated that Rooney would miss at least one match in the opening round of the first phase at UEFA Euro 2012. After the game, Rooney sent a personal letter to UEFA in which he apologised and expressed regret for the tackle on Džudović which earned him the red card.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Despite the letter, UEFA punished Rooney with a three-game ban, meaning that he could not play in any of the group stage matches. After UEFA's announcement, Džudović stated that he believed the sentence for Rooney was too severe and that he would defend him if needed. He later asked the UEFA to pardon Rooney. The FA then decided they would appeal to UEFA against the ban. On 8 December 2011, after the FA had appealed the ban, UEFA reduced the sentence to two matches. This meant that Rooney missed the matches against France and Sweden. He was able to play in the final match of the group stage against Ukraine on 19 June 2012, scoring the only goal of the game, allowing England to progress to the quarter-finals. England were eventually knocked out in the quarter-finals against Italy, who, after a scoreless 120 minutes, won 4–2 on penalties, although Rooney was able to net his spot-kick. After another international tournament in which the English media criticised Rooney's performances, Fabio Capello claimed Rooney "only plays well in Manchester."


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 12 October 2012, Rooney became England's 5th highest goalscorer of all time after scoring his 30th and 31st international goals in a 2014 World Cup qualifier against San Marino. Rooney captained England for the first time in a competitive match in the same game. On 6 February 2013, Rooney scored in a 2–1 win against five-time world champions Brazil at Wembley in a friendly. In March, he scored goals against San Marino and Montenegro in World Cup qualifying, before scoring against Brazil again in a 2–2 draw on 2 June, in the official re-opening of the refurbished Maracanã Stadium. On 11 October 2013, Rooney became England's all-time top goalscorer in competitive internationals when he scored his 27th competitive goal in a 4–1 World Cup qualifier against Montenegro. Rooney ended the 2014 World Cup qualification campaign as England's top scorer with seven goals.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: At the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Rooney started in England's first group match against Italy, setting up Daniel Sturridge's temporary equaliser, in a 2–1 loss. In England's second 2014 World Cup group match against Uruguay at the Arena Corinthians, Rooney scored his first ever goal at a World Cup finals with a 75th-minute equaliser in a 2–1 loss. England drew their final group match 0–0 against Costa Rica, and were eliminated from the World Cup, finishing last in their group; despite playing a part in both of England's goals, Rooney was criticised by English pundits for his performance in the tournament.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Following Steven Gerrard's international retirement after the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Roy Hodgson named Rooney as England's new captain. On 3 September 2014, in the first match of his captaincy, Rooney scored a penalty against Norway to give England a 1–0 friendly win. Later on, he showed his leadership qualities by calling player-only meetings in September 2014 to reflect on the players' performance and discuss how they could do better as a team. Rooney said,


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 15 November 2014, Rooney won his 100th England cap against Slovenia in a Euro 2016 qualifying match, scoring a penalty to equalise in a 3–1 win. In another qualifier away to the same opponents on 14 June 2015, Rooney scored the winner with four minutes remaining for a 3–2 victory, his 48th international goal putting him joint second in England's list alongside Gary Lineker, and one behind Bobby Charlton. In his 106th England appearance, he equalled Charlton's record of 49 goals (also in 106 matches) on 5 September 2015 by scoring a penalty against San Marino. On 8 September 2015, Rooney broke Charlton's England goalscoring record, netting his 50th international goal from a penalty in a Euro 2016 qualifying match against Switzerland, at Wembley, in his 107th appearance for England, also equalling Ashley Cole as his country's fifth-highest capped player; this was also his 300th professional career goal.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: In England's opening match of UEFA Euro 2016 against Russia at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille on 11 June, Rooney was selected to start in central midfield and was named man of the match by the BBC after a 1–1 draw. On 27 June, he scored the opening goal against Iceland in the round of 16 from a penalty in the 4th minute. However England would eventually lose the match 2-1 which subsequently eliminated them from the tournament.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 4 September 2016, Rooney earned his 116th appearance for England in 1–0 away win over Slovakia in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, making him the nation's most-capped outfield player of all time, and England's second highest appearance maker behind Peter Shilton. A few days earlier, he had confirmed that he would retire from international football after the finals in Russia. In March 2017, Rooney had been left out of the England squad by England boss Gareth Southgate. Following Rooney's return to Everton in July, which saw him put on a string of impressive performances, Southgate wanted to recall Rooney back to the England squad for the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. However, Rooney announced his early retirement from international football with immediate effect on 23 August 2017, snubbing Southgate's recall.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 4 November 2018, it was confirmed that Rooney would come out of international retirement to play one final match for the England national football team against the United States at Wembley Stadium on 15 November. This was in order to promote The Wayne Rooney Foundation, a newly formed charity; consequently, the match was called the "Wayne Rooney Foundation International". He came on in the 58th minute of England's eventual 3–0 home win, ending his international career with 120 appearances.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: In August 2020, Rooney was announced as the manager for the England team at Soccer Aid 2020, assisted by Sam Allardyce and goalkeeper coach David Seaman.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: After a poor start to the 2020–21 season saw Derby bottom of the table – their lowest position for 12 years – Derby boss Phillip Cocu was sacked, and Rooney was appointed as part of a four-man interim coaching staff alongside Liam Rosenior, Shay Given and Justin Walker. Rooney's first game in charge saw Derby lose 1–0 at Bristol City to leave them at the foot of the table and three points from safety, though Rooney said he could guarantee that the side would "get better (and) get out of the situation we're in and... start winning games." Following a "painful and chastening" 3–0 defeat to Middlesbrough it was announced that Rooney would take sole control of the side for the next match and had removed himself from the playing squad, with Rooney making clear his desire to take the role full time. Rooney started sole charge with The Rams in 24th, six points adrift of safety and on a run of four consecutive defeats; after improving Derby's form enough to get them out of the relegation zone he was appointed as permanent manager on 15 January.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: By mid-February 2021, having accrued 31 points from a possible 54 in his 18 games in sole charge, taking Derby up to 18th in the league and eight points clear of the relegation zone, Rooney was feted by the press for "convincing the doubters" and found himself as 25/1 outsider for the Celtic job following the resignation of Neil Lennon. Following this, however, form faltered badly with just one win from fourteen leaving Derby firmly in trouble, with Rooney's side being criticised for its poor game management and sloppy defending and suggestion that Rooney came across "as a manager who’s accepted defeat, who’s surrender himself to whatever results might come his way" and should be replaced. Others defended Rooney, saying that though he had made mistakes, particularly in making "too many changes to personnel and shape/tactics" he had not been helped by injuries and too many players who had "been inconsistent (and) unable to maintain form both during a game and from game to game." However, at the last match of the season, Derby County drew 3–3 at home with Sheffield Wednesday to barely avoid relegation.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Derby were relegated to League One at the end of the 2021–22 season, having spent almost the entire season in Administration. With Derby still in Administration going into the League One season, Rooney resigned as manager on 24 June 2022.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: On 12 July 2022, Rooney was announced as head coach for D.C. United. He replaced outgoing manager Hernán Losada.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Regarded as one of the best players of his generation, Rooney was a creative, energetic forward who combined technical skill with strength and physicality, while also excelling in the air despite being tall. He was a versatile attacker, capable of playing anywhere along the front line; although his preferred role was as a striker. Rooney was also used as a supporting forward, or even as a winger. As his pace and movement declined as he entered his thirties, he was deployed in deeper, more creative roles, as an attacking midfielder, as a deep-lying playmaker, or even as a central or box-to-box midfielder, in particular under former manager Louis van Gaal, due to his vision, range of passing, runs forward from midfield, and team-work. He was also occasionally deployed as a false attacking midfielder, and as a false 9 throughout his career.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: A prolific goalscorer in his prime at Manchester United, Rooney was a powerful striker of the ball and an accurate finisher, capable of scoring both inside and outside the penalty area, as well as from volleys. His ball striking ability saw him score from inside his own half for Manchester United, Everton, and D.C. United. He was praised for his work-rate and stamina by players, managers and the media, and was highly regarded for his dedication and willingness to press opponents when possession had been lost in order to win back the ball and start attacking plays. While not known to be particularly prolific from free kicks, he also often took set pieces and penalties throughout his career, although his record from the spot was somewhat inconsistent.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Due to his precocious displays as a teenager, Wayne Rooney was given the nicknames "Wazza" (a reference to former England international Paul "Gazza" Gascoigne, who was also a gifted player troubled by off-field issues), "The Wonder Boy", "the new Pelé", and "the white Pelé". Rooney was a fast, agile player in his youth; however, several injuries throughout his career, in addition to weight issues, affected his speed and mobility as his career progressed, which led to some in the game accusing him of not quite living up to his full potential. He was warned about his fitness on numerous occasions by his manager Alex Ferguson, who said of Rooney, "He is very stocky, he is going to have to train well all the time." Former Manchester United fitness coach Mick Clegg, stated, "Wayne didn't see the importance of the gym really. He'd say 'I'm here to play football." Rooney was criticised for his behaviour and aggression on the pitch at times, which led him to pick up unnecessary bookings.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: The all-time leading goalscorer for the England national team, Rooney is viewed as one of England's greatest players. In 2017, Gareth Southgate said: "You've got very good players and then there are top players. In my time in the England setup, Paul Gascoigne, Paul Scholes and Rooney just had that little bit more than all the others. And we are talking high‑level people there, players like Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and David Beckham."


title: Wayne Rooney

text: In addition to Everton, Rooney also supports Celtic. He is also a supporter of the Leeds Rhinos rugby league club. Rooney, originally a boxer, still pursues the sport recreationally for stress relief. A friend of boxer Ricky Hatton, in 2007 he carried one of Hatton's belts into the ring in his world light-welterweight title fight against José Luis Castillo in Las Vegas. The decision of Hatton (a Manchester City fan) to have a Manchester United striker carry the belt prompted threats of a boycott among the many Manchester City supporters who made up Hatton's fanbase. Hatton responded, "Nobody hates United more than me. Just because I don't support his team doesn't mean I can't admire what he has done." Rooney has a number of tattoos, including one of a Celtic cross on his arm.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney met his wife, Coleen Rooney (née McLoughlin), while both were at secondary school. They married on 12 June 2008 after six years of dating. He has a tattoo of the words "Just Enough Education to Perform", the title of an album by his favourite band, the Stereophonics; Coleen arranged for the group to play at their wedding reception. The wedding ran into some controversy with the Catholic Church. The couple held a religious ceremony at the Abbey of Cervara, a converted monastery near Genoa, despite being warned by the local bishop's office against the plan. The bishop's office told the Rooneys that La Cervara is deconsecrated and not suitable for a wedding. It suggested a different church, five miles away. Nevertheless, the couple ignored the advice and Father Edward Quinn, their local Catholic priest from Croxteth, presided over the ceremony. Coleen's favourite pop band Westlife also sang at the wedding reception.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: The couple have four sons: Kai Wayne (born 2 November 2009), Klay Anthony (born 21 May 2013), Kit Joseph (born 24 January 2016), and Cass Mac (born 15 February 2018). Kai Rooney signed with Manchester United in 2020, becoming a second-generation player for the Red Devils.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: In 2004, Rooney admitted to soliciting prostitutes in Liverpool, while dating his then-girlfriend. "I was young and stupid. It was at a time when I was very young and immature and before I had settled down with Coleen." In April 2006, Rooney was awarded £100,000 in libel damages from tabloids "The Sun" and "News of the World", who had claimed that he had assaulted Coleen in a nightclub. Rooney donated the money to charity.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney's younger brother, John Rooney, is also a professional footballer who plays for Oldham Athletic. Rooney's cousin, Tommy Rooney, is also a footballer. Another cousin, Jake Rooney, is also a professional footballer for Derby County.


title: Wayne Rooney

text: Rooney has endorsement deals with Nike (he is the face of their T90 Laser IV boots), Nokia, Ford, Asda, and Coca-Cola. He appeared on seven consecutive UK-version covers of Electronic Arts' "FIFA" video game series from "FIFA 06" to "FIFA 12". His 'Knockout' goal celebration – a tongue in cheek celebration by Rooney inspired by getting knocked down by a teammate in his home – appears in "FIFA 18". He has featured in Nike commercials, including Write the Future directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu in 2010 where he is knighted, and a tabloid shows his face carved into the Cliffs of Dover with the headline "JUST ROO IT!". In October 2010, Rooney was dropped by Coca-Cola from an advertising campaign following issues surrounding his private life. In 2012, Rooney's reported income of US$32.6 million listed him as the world's fifth highest-paid footballer, following Lionel Messi, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Samuel Eto'o.