Wayne Rooney agrees new contract at Manchester United

Wayne Rooney (C) of Manchester United poses with Manager David Moyes (R) and Executive Vice Chairman Ed Woodward after signing a contract extension.

Manchester United’s star striker, Wayne Rooney, has agreed to renew his contract at United for 5 and a half years, which would keep him at Old Trafford until the end of 2018-19 season. His new contract is worth around £85 million.

United officials spoke to Rooney about contract renewal just after Christmas. Wayne Rooney had agreed to extend his contract which had 18 months left to run by an additional four years –with image rights being the last hold-up, which were decided this week.

The 28-year-old striker is all set to lead the side from next season as current captain, Nemanja Vidic would leave the club next summer.

Wayne Rooney forms a formidable strike partnership with Robin van Persie. His decision to stay would be a huge relief for United fans who desperately wanted their favourite star to stay at Old Trafford.

A formal statement from the club is expected soon.

BBC quoted Rooney, “I’m happy everything is now finalised and I can carry on concentrating on my football.”

On breaking Bobby Charlton’s record of scoring 249 goals for the club, the United number 10 said: “This is definitely something I would like to achieve. If I managed to do it it’d be something I’d be very proud of. My aim is always to score and create as many goals as possible, so if I can continue to score regularly and break the record then I would be delighted.”

On Wayne Rooney’s contract renewal, manager David Moyes opined: “I said last July that Wayne has an outstanding chance to be a true legend of this club’s long and rich history. He is just 42 goals away from overtaking Sir Bobby as our record goalscorer and becoming the first United player to hit 250 goals for the club.

“These opportunities only come to special players and I’m confident Wayne will set a new record that will take decades to reach.”

He further added, “We always felt Wayne wanted to stay. He’s a great player, and hopefully we can keep him at a really high level which he has showed this season.

“We’re all delighted. It’s part of the rebuilding and part of it is also to make sure you keep the players you really want to keep.

“Everybody would want him, you could see the clubs who did want him but there was never a chance he was going to leave Manchester United, certainly not on my watch.”