The Wayne Rooney, Derby County water park transfer story you won’t believe | OneFootball

The 39-year-old resigned from his role at Pride Park in 2022.

Former Derby County boss Wayne Rooney once tried to convince a player to sign for the Rams at a water park in Dubai.

The 39-year-old was appointed by Derby as part of a four-man interim coaching staff that included Liam Rosenior, Shay Given and Justin Walker in November 2020, before being named as permanent manager in January 2021.

The Rams finished 21st in the Championship table at the end of the 2020/21 campaign, narrowly avoiding relegation to League One by a single point.

Rooney brought in a few players on free transfers during the summer transfer window after that season, including Ryan Allsop and Phil Jagielka, but the Rams' business was not enough to overcome a significant points deduction, and the club was relegated to the third tier in 2022, shortly before the ex-England international resigned from his role as manager.

Now, Rooney has revealed that he once tried to convince a player to complete a move to Pride Park while on holiday at a water park in Dubai, in what has to go down as one of the more unusual locations to discuss a potential deal during a transfer window.

Wayne Rooney spoke to Derby transfer target at a water park

While most players would probably expect to meet an interested manager in an office at the training ground, over the phone, or face to face in a Zoom meeting, that is not the approach that Rooney took when he tried to convince a player to join Derby.

The former Rams boss spoke of the incident on the Wayne Rooney Show on BBC Radio 5 Live, as per Match of the Day via X, stating that he agreed to meet the player at a water park after finding out he was in Dubai.

"I met a player at the Atlantis water park in Dubai," Rooney said.

"I had a meeting with him to try and get him to sign for Derby.

"He was in Dubai, so I said 'I'll meet you there'. So we've met there, and I actually had a skintight wet top on, where I'd been on the slides, because if I don't have a top on I'll just burn. So it's like one of them swim tops, with like a man on a surfboard or something on the front of it. It was sticking to me, and I was just like, 'what am I doing?'"

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Rooney confirmed that the player in question did not end up signing for Derby following his attempt to convince him at the water park.

Derby were relegated under Wayne Rooney

Despite failing to sign the transfer target he spoke to at a water park in Dubai, Rooney managed to pick up 55 points as Derby boss over the course of the 2021/22 season, which would have seen the club finish 17th in the Championship without a points deduction.

However, the Rams were given a 21-point deduction due to off-field issues, which resulted in them finishing 23rd in the second tier and suffering relegation to League One.

Rooney resigned from his role that summer, with Derby still in administration going into the 2022/23 campaign.

It is unlikely that one new signing would have been able to prevent the Rams being relegated to League One, but Rooney would likely have had a better chance of attracting his transfer target had he not met them at a water park in Dubai while wearing a skintight swim top.