Adam Christopher David Rooney (born 21 April 1988) is an Irish professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
loan
In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...
at
Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to:
* Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset
* Yeovil Town L.F.C.
Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...
Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional ...
, and played for
Birmingham City
Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...
and had a loan spell at
Swindon Town
Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...
. He played for
Oldham Athletic
Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system.
The history of Oldham Athletic be ...
and spent four-and-a-half seasons with
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
Rooney signed for Stoke City in the summer of 2005, after spells with Home Farm, Cherry Orchard and Crumlin United. In his first season at Stoke, Rooney made his debut at academy and reserves levels, before making his first team debut as a second-half substitute against Tamworth in the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
. Rooney scored his first goal for Stoke against
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...
on 17 April 2006. In only his second full start for Stoke City, he scored a
hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.
Origin
The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...
against already relegated
Brighton & Hove Albion
Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...
in the final fixture of the 2005–06 season to become Stoke's youngest ever hat-trick scorer.
Loan moves
On 16 March 2007, Rooney joined
Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to:
* Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset
* Yeovil Town L.F.C.
Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...
on
loan
In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...
for a month. The loan was later extended until the end of the season. However, he returned to Stoke on 9 May 2007, after making one start and two substitute appearances for Yeovil.
In August 2007, he joined
League Two
The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...
Rooney travelled with Scottish Premier League club
Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional ...
's squad on their pre-season tour of Denmark and returned to train with the Highland side in August, before the club announced his signing on a three-year deal.
Rooney scored his first goal for Inverness in a 2–1 defeat at home to St Mirren, which was the
SPL
SPL may refer to:
Association football
* Saudi Professional League
* Scottish Premier League
* SportPesa Premier League, Kenya
* Singapore Premier League
* RoboCup Standard Platform League, matches between autonomous robots
Computing Program ...
's 6000th goal. In the 2009–10 season he was awarded the "Irn Bru Phenomenal" First Division Player of the Year award. He was top scorer in the First Division with 24 goals, 27 in all competitions, the last of which was scored against Dundee in the last fixture of the season. After the game the team were presented with the championship trophy.
Birmingham City
After his contract with Inverness expired at the end of the 2010–11 season, Rooney signed a two-year deal with
Championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
side
Birmingham City
Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...
. He scored what manager
Chris Hughton
Christopher William Gerard Hughton (born 11 December 1958) is a professional football manager and former player. Born in England, he represented the Republic of Ireland national team.
After making his professional debut aged 20, Hughton spen ...
described as "a typical poacher's goal" in a pre-season friendly against
Cork City
Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city's ...
, and made his league debut for the club on the opening day of the new season, playing the whole of a 2–1 defeat at
Derby County
Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group.
Founded in 188 ...
. His first competitive goal for the club came from the penalty spot to open the scoring away at
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area.
Until the early 1800s, the a ...
on 21 August; Middlesbrough came back to win 3–1. He also scored the following week against
Watford
Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne.
Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...
. In the last game of the Europa League group stage, Rooney scored his first European goal as Birmingham beat NK Maribor 1–0, but a draw between the other two teams in the group meant Birmingham failed to progress to the last 32.
Swindon Town (loan)
On the last day of the August 2012 transfer window, Rooney joined
League One
The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...
club
Swindon Town
Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...
on loan for the season with a view to a permanent transfer. Swindon defender
Paul Caddis
Paul McLean Caddis (born 19 April 1988) is a Scottish football coach and former professional footballer who played in more than 350 professional matches at club level and represented his country at youth and senior levels. Having predominantly ...
moved in the other direction, also on loan for the season.
Oldham Athletic
Although a deal had been agreed for Rooney to join Swindon permanently at the end of the season, the club's new owners questioned the validity of the contract, and the player trained with League One club
Oldham Athletic
Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system.
The history of Oldham Athletic be ...
during 2013 pre-season while discussions continued to resolve the situation. On 1 August, he signed a two-year contract with Oldham, with an option of a further year. He scored his first goals for the club against
Port Vale
Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...
, scoring twice in a 3–1 win at
Boundary Park
Boundary Park is a football stadium in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. Its name originates from the fact that it lies at the northwestern extremity of Oldham, with Royton and Chadderton lying immediately north and west respectively.
Bound ...
.
Aberdeen
On 23 January 2014, Rooney signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with
Scottish Premiership
The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...
side
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
. He scored on his debut two days later in a 2–2 draw with Motherwell at
Fir Park
Fir Park Stadium is a football stadium situated in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The stadium plays host to the home matches of Scottish Premiership club Motherwell and was the temporary home of Gretna for the 2007–08 SPL season. M ...
, and scored his second in as many matches, as well as crossing for
Jonny Hayes
Jonathan Hayes (born 9 July 1987) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a winger for the Scottish Premiership team Aberdeen and Republic of Ireland.
He began his career in England with Reading, but did not break through to their f ...
' opening goal, as Aberdeen beat St Johnstone 4–0 to progress to the
2014 Scottish League Cup Final
The 2014 Scottish League Cup Final was the 68th final of the Scottish League Cup. The final took place on 16 March 2014 at Celtic Park, Glasgow. The clubs contesting the 2014 final were Scottish Premiership clubs, Aberdeen and Inverness CT. Th ...
. Rooney scored his fifth goal in six appearances on 25 February, to help his side end Celtic's 26-match unbeaten run in the Premiership season. On 8 March 2014, Rooney scored his sixth goal in eight appearances in a 1–0 Scottish Cup quarter-final win over
Dumbarton
Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990.
Dumbarton was the ca ...
.
Rooney started for Aberdeen against his former club Inverness in the 2014 Scottish League Cup Final. A 0–0 scoreline after 90 minutes led to extra time and penalties, where Rooney scored the decisive penalty kick in a 4–2 victory to win the League Cup; it was Aberdeen's first piece of silverware for 19 years. Rooney was voted Scottish Professional Football Player of the Month for February 2014.
Rooney started the 2014–2015 season strongly by scoring two goals in a 5–0 home victory against FK Daugava Riga in the first qualifying round of the
Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...
. He continued his strong start with a first-half hat-trick in a 3–0 away win in the second leg. Rooney went on to give the Dons the lead in the second leg of the second qualifying round against FC Groningen, scoring a penalty as Aberdeen won 2–1, progressing to the third qualifying round to face Real Sociedad. This put his European goals total with Aberdeen to six in four games. Rooney scored his first league goal of the season in a 3–0 win against Ross County and continued his scoring exploits four days later with his second hat-trick for the Dons and tenth goal of the season in a 4–0 League Cup win against Livingston. Rooney then provided the only goal in a game against
Hamilton Academical
Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championship, having been relegated from the 2020–21 Scotti ...
in the same competition to see the Dons through to the semi-finals. On 23 November, Rooney continued his good form and scored his 14th goal of the season by converting a penalty in a 1–0 victory away against Partick Thistle. On 22 December, Rooney signed a contract extension running until the summer of 2018. Rooney scored 28 goals in total for the season and finished the top scorer in the Scottish Premiership.
On 5 August 2016, Rooney signed a four-year contract extension at Aberdeen. He scored his 100th Scottish League goal on 31 March 2017, in a 7–0 victory over Dundee. On 22 April 2017, in the semi-final of the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Hibernian.
Salford City
Rooney signed a three-year contract with Salford City of the
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...
on 19 July 2018; the fee was undisclosed. The transfer led to
Accrington Stanley
Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The club competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They have spent their complete his ...
owner Andy Holt accusing Salford of "buying" a place in the
English Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...
, with Rooney reportedly due to earn £4,000 per week at Salford. He made his debut in the opening match of the 2018–19 season on 4 August, playing the whole match as Salford drew 1–1 at home to
Leyton Orient
Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a profession ...
.
Solihull Moors
Rooney joined
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...
club Solihull Moors on 13 March 2020 on a contract to run until the end of the 2021–22 season. The fee was undisclosed. Later that day, elite football in England was suspended because of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. The National League soon followed suit, and the season was declared complete, apart from the play-offs for which Solihull Moors had not qualified. Interviewed for ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' later in March, Rooney speculated that he might not make his debut for another six months. It was nearer seven: on 17 October, Rooney started Solihull Moors' match at home to
Boreham Wood
Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly known ...
and, playing with ten men for most of the match after
Darren Carter
Darren Anthony Carter (born 18 December 1983) is an English football coach and former professional player. Primarily a central midfielder, Carter made more than 300 appearances in the Premier League and Football League over a 14-year career, an ...
was sent off, he scored the only goal after 75 minutes.
Rooney's first goal of the 2021–22 season opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the FA Cup replay against
Wigan Athletic
Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system.
Founded in 1932, ...
National League North
The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Syst ...
, in October.
International career
Rooney played for the Republic of Ireland under-18 team in the 2005
European Youth Olympic Festival
The European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) is a biennial multi-sport event for youth (14 to 18 years old) athletes from the 50 member countries of the association of European Olympic Committees. The festival has a summer edition, held for the fir ...
in
Lignano Sabbiadoro
Lignano Sabbiadoro (; fur, Lignan) is a town and comune within the province of Udine, in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region of north-eastern Italy. It is one of the main summer resorts in northern Italy and on the Adriatic Sea coast.
History
...
; he scored twice as Ireland beat Switzerland to win the bronze medal. On 14 May 2007, Rooney scored a hat-trick in the Ireland under-19s' 3–0 win over
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...
squad in August 2015 for the first time with manager
Martin O'Neill
Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder.
Starting his career in Northern Ireland, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his playi ...
including him in a 37-man preliminary squad to face Gibraltar and Georgia in
Euro 2016
The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...
qualifiers.
Personal life
Rooney was born in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
. His older brother Mark was also a professional footballer.
In January 2022 Rooney co-launched Good Feel Coffee, an online coffee company supporting mental health and cancer charities.
Career statistics
Honours
Inverness Caledonian Thistle
*
Scottish Football League First Division
The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013.
History
The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 to replace the old Scottish Football League Division Two, as t ...
Scottish League Cup
The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...
European Youth Olympic Festival
The European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) is a biennial multi-sport event for youth (14 to 18 years old) athletes from the 50 member countries of the association of European Olympic Committees. The festival has a summer edition, held for the fir ...