Former English international and Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has confessed that gambling negatively affected his performance on the pitch.
Rooney earned 300,000 pounds a week at the Old Trafford blew most of his earnings after being lured by early betting success.
Estimates of his gambling losses put his debts at 700,000 pounds in five months from wagers on dogs, football and horses. In 2008, he reportedly lost 65,000 pounds in two hours at a casino.
He blames it on his young age then and earning a lot of money. For an away game with Manchester United they stayed in hotels and with the national team they would stay in a hotel for seven to ten days. That would come with a lot of boredom and to fill up the time, betting was one thing he did most of the time.
Rooney spoke in a video for the online casino 32Red’s stay in control safer gambling scheme. 32Red pays Rooney 90,000 pounds at the Derby County.
He moved to Derby on an 18 month player- coach contract from MLS side DC united. He will wear number 32 shirt for the club. His signing helped the club secure a record breaking sponsorship deal with the gambling firm.
His move has however sparked criticism with The Church of England’s spokesman Dr. Alan Smith feeling that Rooney should have turned down wearing the shirt to avoid influencing young people into gambling.
Rooney who now wears the armband performed well in his debut for the Rams who are now proud of having the former England captain and United and Egerton’s toward on their ranks.
