Wayne Rooney has admitted that he uses Football Manager to find new players. José Mourinho did it too, says former footballer

Former English footballer and current coach of D.C. United gave an interview in which he revealed that he uses a video game to find the right players for his team.

Wayne Rooney is one of the best footballers in English history and a Manchester United legend. After his playing career ended, he embarked on a coaching one and is now working in the American MLS.

His coaching stint began in the 2020/2021 season when he became part of the interim four-man coaching staff that took over Derby County. The club was then in its worst position for twelve years.

Rooney, who was also starting on the pitch, decided to take charge of the team. He took himself out of the line-up and began to concentrate on coaching. The club was six points behind the relegation places. At that time his charges got 31 points out of 54 possible and the club avoided relegation.

The following season was not so glorious. The English club had mainly huge financial problems and after the end of the season they were relegated to the third league. Wayne Rooney subsequently resigned.

In June 2022, he took up a position at the D.C. club. United, which was not in the best of moods. They finished the season with the worst goal difference in the Eastern Conference.

Now he has the opportunity to lead the club from training and the start of the season. They are doing much better and are in ninth position in the table. Apparently, one of the keys to success is the Football Manager video game. During an interview with The Times, he shared just how the game’s developers are helping him.

“A big part of the market is South America, so we made a deal with Football Manager. We’re doing some advertising for them and they’ve provided us with their scouts. 11 or 12 of them that they use in different places around the world,” Rooney said. “Jose Mourinho has done something similar in the past,” the legendary footballer added.

D.C. United has been very active in the transfer market since the arrival of Wayne Rooney and has just received a lot of data regarding new signings from Football Manager. The developers of this game can credit another success to the great work of their scouting team.

Source: The Times, Wikipedia