Gerrard would have reacted very differently.
The night England crashed out of the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals still lives long in the memory.
Beckham off injured, Lampard, Gerrard and Carragher all missing penalties, Ricardo, the Portuguese keeper, saving all three and Owen Hargreaves playing like a man possessed, attempting desperately to will England to the semis through the power of sprinting around for 120 minutes alone.
And then of course, there is the moment that changed the course of the match, a young Wayne Rooney stamping on Ricardo Carvalho, and a young Cristiano Ronaldo appealing relentlessly to the referee for a dismissal.
Image credit GettyWhen it eventually came he winked knowingly to the Portugal bench and that image was beamed around the globe. In England, particularly, it became a sort of Bat-Signal for angry dads to spit out their Carling and rant and moan and shake their fists to the sky in outrage. The close-up of man they called the namby-pamby, fairy-boy winger – complete with golden tan, much taller than them, more handsome, from Madeira – made their blood boil and it was immediately he who was to blame, not Wayne. Not poor, innocent, honest, Wayne.
Image credit GettyWhat they all wanted, and what Alan Shearer actively encouraged during the post-match analysis, was for Rooney to return to Manchester United and punch Ronaldo in the face, essentially just to give him a big wallop around the head, as though that would sort him out, that would be justice.
Unfortunately this did not happen. For obvious reasons.
It has since been revealed that Rooney actually sought out his club teammate in the tunnel after the incident, remained impossibly calm and assured him that he wouldn’t be seeking retaliation in any way.
He had understood why he did what he did, and would have done the same had the Total 90s been on the other foot.
On Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football Rooney admitted that he spoke to him after the game:
“I said to him ‘the press want to make a big thing out of us falling out, not getting along’. I said ‘Don’t worry about it – I would have done the exact same thing’. I tried to get him booked for diving. He was my club teammate but he was a rival in that game. If I could have got him sent off, I would.”
Steven Gerrard, meanwhile, has stated that he would have been far less forgiving had one of his Liverpool teammates had crossed him in a similar manner.
In his autobiography, which was published shortly after the tournament, Gerrard revealed what he said to Rooney immediately afterwards:
“On the bus after the game Wayne asked me: ‘What do you think about the wink?’.
“I said: ‘Honestly, Wazza, if we were playing Spain and Xabi Alonso or Luis Garcia winked at the referee or gave a signal for me to be sent off, I’d never speak to them again’.”
Other than calling Rooney “Wazza” – I thought that was only the fucking Sun newspaper – claiming that he would never talk to Xabi Alonso again, beautiful, wonderful Xabi Alonso, seems a bit much.
He would never do that to you Stevie anyway mate. He’d never hurt you like that. I promise.
Lived it. Loved it.
Farewell beautiful game. pic.twitter.com/1aSN7GGNzZ
— Xabi Alonso (@XabiAlonso) March 9, 2017
