Former Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney has revealed that he was tempted to move to Real Madrid or Barcelona during his career — and he can therefore understand the thinking from Liverpool number 66 Trent Alexander-Arnold.
It is widely thought that Alexander-Arnold will leave Liverpool as a free agent at the end of the season. The Reds ace is expected to move to Real Madrid for nothing, joining the former Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham.
Rooney says the move would make plenty of sense for Alexander-Arnold. And he thinks that it is only Real Madrid who would have been able to tempt the Scouser into leaving his boyhood club.
“If Trent Alexander-Arnold does join Real Madrid this summer, fair play to him,” Rooney wrote for BBC Sport. “I was once tempted to make a big move to Spain myself.
“Alexander-Arnold is 26 and out of contract at the end of the season. He is in a position where he either commits the rest of his career to Liverpool or decides to go to Real — who clearly want him.
“If he was to leave Liverpool for any other club you might wonder why. But, because it is Real we are talking about, I don’t think you could question it as a career move.
“Real are the biggest club in the world with an incredible history, so it would be a massive opportunity. I’d understand if he felt it was too good to turn down.”
Alexander-Arnold has been at Liverpool for two decades, and there is no doubt that he will be viewed differently by Reds fans if he does depart. However, he won’t be naive enough not to have considered that a factor in his decision-making.
“When I told Manchester United in 2010 that I did not want to sign a new deal and put in a transfer request, three clubs came in for me,” Rooney continued. “Manchester City are often talked about as being one of them, but I don’t think that was ever an option.
“The teams who made an approach were Chelsea, Real and Barcelona. In my head, I was ready to go and play in Spain and some talks did take place.
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“A deal with Real looked more likely for a couple of days. But it was Barcelona whom I thought about the most, and how I might fit into their side alongside Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Sergio Busquets.
“In the end, I decided to stay at United, but Barca had an incredible team then, and any player would have loved to have played in it.
“Real are the same now with superstars like Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Jr, so of course it must be appealing to Alexander-Arnold to think about playing alongside them. Anyone would feel the same.”
Liverpool.com says: Alexander-Arnold is unique so he won’t be easy to replace. But he has always felt like the likeliest of the three big contracts that need sorting to leave. If Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk are both tied to extensions, you would probably have to deal on that given the unfortunate situation that sporting director Richard Hughes inherited.
