How much money Wayne Rooney earned at Derby County compared to Man United | OneFootball

The Manchester United legend spent the final part of his career at Pride Park

Wayne Rooney will go down in history as one of the best Englishmen to play the game, and in his prime, many would have put him among the world's elite.

Rooney is a Premier League champion, three-time EFL Cup winner, FA Cup winner, has successes in the Champions League and the Europa League, and to top it all off, is the current third-highest top scorer in Premier League history.

It's an impressive resume, so to say such a legendary career ended in the Championship is still a strange feeling, but it's true.

Rooney spent the latter half of the 19/20 campaign at Derby County, as well as the opening stages of the following season, before he retired to become the Rams' manager.

After a long career at the top of English football, it's a certainty that Rooney took a pay cut in his final contract of his playing career compared to what he was earning at Manchester United, but given the name, perhaps his wage was still relatively large compared to the Championship average...

How much Wayne Rooney earned at Derby County compared to Manchester United

According to Capology's estimates, Rooney was one of the highest earners in the Manchester United squad towards the tail end of his time at Old Trafford. In the 2016/17 campaign, his final year at the club, he was estimated to earn a whopping £235,000 per week.

That would drop after he left the Red Devils, especially after he departed Everton for the MLS with DC United in 2018. In fact, his wage for the Washington-based side was similar to what he would go on to earn at Derby when he returned to England two years later.

At Derby, Rooney was estimated to be earning £50,000 per week. Whilst only a fraction of what he was earning at Manchester United, it was still a large amount for a Championship club to pay.

The Rams were desperate to get out of the second tier and into the Premier League at the time, and Mel Morris was happy to throw money at proven Championship and former top-flight stars to help them get there. In the end, the club fell short in the 2018/19 play-offs and then finished 10th the following campaign with Rooney in the squad.

How much Wayne Rooney earned compared to other Championship players in 2020

Soccer Football - FA Cup Fifth Round - Derby County v Manchester United - Pride Park, Derby, Britain - March 5, 2020 Derby County's Wayne Rooney after the match with Manchester United assistant coach Mike Phelan Action Images via Reuters/Carl Recine

After a successful career in top-flight football, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Rooney was immediately the highest earner in the second tier during his time at Derby, but that wasn't the case.

According to Capology, 11 different players earned more than the Manchester United legend during his final few months in the division during the 2020/21 campaign, with Andre Ayew and Yannick Bolasie leading the way on £75,000 per week.

After earning six-figure weekly wages across nearly his entire career, money perhaps wasn't the sole goal for Rooney when it came to the final few years of it, and he enjoyed a solid few months playing over in England once more before he retired to become the new Derby manager.

Rooney isn't fondly remembered for his managerial work. However, given the club's turmoil at the time, due to being placed into administration, some Derby fans will still give him praise for taking on what was an unenviable job in the Pride Park dugout for nearly two years.