“In the dressing room, we were always close to each other,” Rooney recalled. “We were always at the forefront of pranking the coach, or other players. What happened brought us closer together on the field. The next three years were our best cooperation, bringing in three Premier League championship and a Champions League. My red card at Gelsenkirchen was the starting point.”

Rooney was sent off for stepping on the foot of Portuguese defender Ricardo Carvalho in the quarter-finals of the 2006 World Cup. During the referee’s deliberations, another Portuguese player and Rooney’s teammate at Man Utd, Cristiano Ronaldo urged the referee to be strong. This surprised Rooney, and made Man Utd fans angry.

However, Rooney did not blame Ronaldo: “I try to put myself in Ronaldo’s position and ask myself if I would have done the same. Maybe yes. Would I have asked the referee to disqualify him if he deserved it?” penalty and my team will have the advantage to win. The answer is yes. There is nothing to worry about.”

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Not long after the incident, British media captured Ronaldo winking his eyes with pleasure. Regarding this, Ronaldo once explained: “I winked not because of trouble with Rooney, but because of another situation. The media created a big story about that wink. When I returned to Man Utd, I had a conversation with Rooney. He understood my point of view. Rooney said: ‘Cristiano, that’s the past, let’s talk about the present. Let’s win the title together'”.

After Rooney received a red card, England lost to Portugal in a penalty shootout. The defeat caused England to once again stop in the World Cup quarter-finals, while Portugal reached the semi-finals, achieving their best result since winning bronze in 1966.