Wayne Rooney leaves Gary Neville speechless after revealing biggest wage at Man Utd

Martin Macdonald

20 Nov 2025 09:30 CST
5 min read

On the latest episode of the Overlap, Gary Neville was left speechless after learning Wayne Rooney's biggest wage per year at Manchester United.

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Neville was captain of the club before his retirement in 2011 and confirmed that he received around £1.75m per year.

When the Overlap host asked Rooney how much he received, the former striker revealed that he earned up to £17m per season at his United peak.

The Englishman signed for Man Utd in 2004 at the age of just 18 after emerging as a generational talent at Everton.

He would go on to become the Red Devils' greatest ever goalscorer as well as England's top scorer, though the latter record has since been taken by Harry Kane.

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While at Man Utd, Rooney won five Premier League titles, one FA Cup, three League Cups, one Champions League, one Europa League and one Club World Cup title.

He rejoined Everton in 2017 before short periods at D.C. United and Derby County and after retirement he became a manager then a pundit.

In 2004, Newcastle were close to securing his signature as Man Utd initially wanted to wait until a year later and he even had a conversational with the legend that is Sir Bobby Robson, then the Magpies manager.

"I would have certainly went [to Newcastle]," he previously said on BBC's The Wayne Rooney Show.

"Manchester United wanted to wait a season and then sign me the year after they did sign me. Newcastle put a bid in and if Manchester United hadn't come in, I would have gone to Newcastle.

"Those two were bidding against each other. My agent's best mate was chairman at Newcastle at the time! So I'm sure he was getting nudged to try to get me as well.

"I wanted to go to Manchester United, but I spoke with Sir Bobby Robson and Alan Shearer. In true Bobby Robson style, on the phone he called me 'Mark'. I thought he had either forgotten my name or he was a genius - because that's my middle name."

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