Wayne Rooney confirms Barcelona interest while he was in Man Utd prime

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FT Desk

Wayne Rooney has revealed that Barcelona held an interest in signing him back in his Manchester United prime - and that he would have loved to have played for the Blaugrana.

The United legend twice played Barca in Champions League finals, in 2009 and in 2011, and twice the Catalan giants emerged victorious.

In 2009, they won 2-0 thanks to goals from Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi, while in 2001 they won 3-1, with Pedro, Messi and David Villa all scoring.

In the latter, Rooney scored United's only goal of the game.

It was around this period that Barcelona were undoubtedly the best team in the world, while it was clear Man Utd were regressing. Rooney himself spoke about a period of uncertainty after Cristiano Ronaldo was allowed to leave for Real Madrid in 2009.

At one point, Barca apparently had an interest in signing him, but Rooney says it wouldn't have been financially viable for the Spanish giants.

“There was a small possibility, but I think financially it was difficult for them,” he revealed on the United Stand podcast.

Did he want to make the move?

“I would have loved to play for Barcelona,” the former England star confessed.

“They beat us in the final and they didn’t have a reference No. 9,” Rooney explained.

“I think it would have been easy to play in that team and I would have fitted perfectly.”

Rooney was referring to the 2011 final in which Messi was deployed through the middle as a False Nine with Villa and Pedro on the flanks.

Barcelona are not the one club that he wishes he had played for in his career, however.

That honour lies with Celtic.

When asked by Gary Neville on The Overlap the one team he regrets not playing for, Rooney replied:

"It's well known that I am a Celtic fan, and it's probably one of my regrets not playing for Celtic at some point.

“Just growing up as a kid I’ve always liked Celtic. I’ve just always liked Celtic. My dad, my family, everything.

“When I was growing up, obviously there was Henrik Larsson and Chris Sutton up top, John Hartson when he was there.

“Some of the players Celtic have had and moments they’ve given us is incredible. During the best part of my career I always thought I’d love to play for Celtic at the end of my career, and it obviously wasn’t to be.”

Rooney has actually been in the Celtic end during Old Firm matches against Rangers and, because of that, he received rough treatment from the Ibrox fans when Man Utd played there in the Champions League in 2010.