Boys Will Be Boys, But Only if You Let Them
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Wayne Rooney, the raging teenage bull of English soccer, is now, quasi-officially, the most promising young player in the world. The judgment comes from some 38,000 professional players around the world, voting through their players’ unions.
Their decision is to be respected … and to be viewed skeptically. There are other candidates for the role – Brazil’s Robinho, and Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez of Argentina, for example.
But the 21-year-old Robinho has only just started his career at Real Madrid, while Messi is currently involved in a row over his citizenship, which prevents his turning out for his club Barcelona. Tevez, meanwhile, plays his soccer in Brazil, far from the European centers of soccer fame and fortune.
Whereas Rooney plays in the highly visible English Premier League. What’s more, he plays for Manchester United, the world’s most successful club in terms of the global televising of its games. At age 19,the combative, powerful striker is already a celebrity whose name is a daily staple of the world’s soccer news.
Those 38,000 voters, you can be certain, have seen and heard a lot more of Rooney than the other three. In no way does this diminish Rooney’s talents, but his high profile does raise a serious question about his temperament. Because so much of the publicity surrounding Rooney focuses on his appalling lack of discipline on the field.
The most recent example of his waywardness came during Manchester United’s European champions league game against Spain’s Villareal on September 14.After being cautioned for rough play, Rooney’s response was to walk up to referee Kim Nielsen and clap his hands in mocking applause – right under Nielsen’s nose. Of course, Nielsen immediately ejected him, meaning Rooney will be suspended for ManU’s next two European games.
The same problem with Rooney besets the England coach, Sven Goran Eriksson. England’s recent unthinkable loss to Northern Ireland in a World Cup qualifier marked the low point of Eriksson’s four-year spell as the England boss. But things could have sunk even lower had Rooney been red-carded – as he quite easily could have been when, after being cautioned, he stormed around the field in a red rage, swearing at his own players as they tried to restrain him, telling his captain, David Beckham, to “f— off.”
Even without that red card, Rooney is suspended for England’s next qualifying game for piling up too many disciplinary points. Once again, he will be confined to the bench for a crucial game.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson tried, lamely, to excuse Rooney’s ridiculous mocking of Nielsen by saying that Rooney felt his caution was unfair, and that he “reacts” when he suffers an injustice – an explanation that suggests a tempestuous and suspension-filled future for Rooney.
But the boy is still only 19. He already has the role of ManU’s key player, and he is being hailed as the player to lead England to World Cup victory next year in Germany. That is a lot of pressure for a teenager. Too much pressure, says former England star Paul Gascoigne, who was no stranger to disciplinary scrapes in his own playing days. “It is not fair relying on a 19-year-old kid to win games for England,” Gascoigne has said. “That should not happen.”
Gascoigne’s advice is that Rooney should be “cuddled and caressed” and not criticized. So – will it be the stick or the carrot that puts an end to Rooney’s self-destructiveness?
Neither. That’s the opinion of another former player, Terry Butcher, who captained England in the 1990 World Cup. Variously described as “hard-nosed” or “uncompromising” in his playing days – he had none of Rooney’s natural talents – Butcher was a rough-and-tumble defender who played soccer according to his own wild rhythm. And that, says Butcher, is what Rooney should be allowed to do. He should be left alone, allowed to sort things out for himself, because attempts to discipline him will destroy the fire that propels his game.
Radical, possibly dangerous advice. But it’s the sort of advice that smacks of sturdy common sense. A groomed Rooney, a Rooney shorn of rage, would be no Rooney at all. We have, at this moment in America, a good example of a teenage phenom who is being carefully – oh, so very, very carefully – groomed for stardom in 16-year-old Freddy Adu.
After one and a half seasons in the MLS with D.C. United, one is entitled to ask: where is the explosive talent that was going to make Adu a world star, that prompted Nike to hand him $1 million at age 14?
Maybe it’s coming along nicely and quietly under all the various types of coaching Adu receives. Maybe it’s a good thing that his coach, Peter Novak, has him on the bench as often as on the field. Maybe all that special instruction on how to deal with money and the press – to say nothing of life – will be good for Freddy.
Maybe. Then again, maybe all that TLC has taken the edge off Freddy’s personality and his game. Talking to the press, Adu says this sort of thing: “The way we lost the last couple of games was just ‘Ouch!’ That would just destroy anybody on any team, but not D.C. United. These guys have so much confidence that nothing gets us down, so we just came out and took it to them.”
Ouch! Indeed. Those are words that surely come straight out of some adult’s instructional manual, not a teenager’s mind. One is beginning to long for a burst of anger from Adu, a sign that he wants to impose himself, which he will have to do to succeed in the professional ranks. Eventually, there will have to be some venom in Adu’s game, and it is completely lacking at the moment.
Rooney, of course, is poisoning himself with an excess of venom. Unquestionably, he needs to be reined in, where Adu needs to be cut loose. In both cases, a compromise must be found, and it seems certain that only the players themselves can find it. Without the balancing of rage and discipline, the frustration of witnessing wasted talent will continue. We shall have many more chances to watch a red-carded Rooney cursing his way off the field, and we shall continue to hear a well-mannered Adu giving vapid post game comments.