El Blanco Pelé Sucks at Poker

At 16, footballer Wayne Rooney was the youngest goal scorer in the history of the Premiership. At 17, he became the youngest player to ever play for England, and when Rooney signed with Manchester United he became the world's richest teenage athlete in a £30 million deal. The man they refer to as El Blanco Pelé (which translates to "Cracker Pelé" or something) has since racked up numerous titles including the "Golden Boy" prize as Europe's best young player, FIFPro's young player of the year and a bounty of "man of the match" accolades. Now in 2006, football fans are saying that it's time for "Wayne's World Cup" as he leads England's charge this summer for its first Cup title in 40 years.

But when it comes to gambling and poker, apparently the 20-year-old star striker is quite the loser.

Rooney, who makes over $100,000US a week, has reportedly racked up around $1.22 million (700k quid in Brit money) in gambling debts to Steve Smith, a bookmaker and business partner of Rooney's Man U mate Michael Owen. When Rooney, who was wagering on horses, dogs and football matches, was informed of how much he's in the hole, he immediately (shit his pants then) ran/looked to his management company, Proactive, for help. Proactive, a power player in the football world, then went to Smith and demanded to see Rooney's account, including any statements listing his bets. Allegedly no such statements were produced.

According to the Daily Mail, prior to turning to Proactive, Rooney "came under intense pressure to clear his debts."

"He had the heavy hand on the shoulder," a source said.

Whether this pressure was "Big Chris from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" kind-of-pressure (see pic), we can't be sure, but our Guy Ritchie minds think perhaps it was...or at least was heading in that direction.

Stating he plans to shirk his gambling obligations (uh, bad idea), Rooney and others has put the blame on those who didn't discourage him, like his teammate Owen.

"Michael Owen should be someone who puts his arm around Wayne's shoulder. Wayne is pretty pissed off with Michael for introducing him to these people," a source has said, according to the Daily Mail.

Apparently Rooney has also been introduced to the game of Texas Hold'em, and not surprisingly he's proven to be a loser there as well. Most recently it was said that Rooney lost a Chrysler 300C in a game of hold'em to his Man U mate Phil Bardsley. Why Rooney bought a Chrysler 300C instead of say a Mercedes CL600, who knows, but Bardsley denies the claim that he won the vehicle from Rooney, saying he bought it from him.

Sure.

All of this reminds us of another of our favorite star striker/poker players, Mads "The Worm" Junker, who cheated his fellow FC Nordsjaelland teammates during games of texas hold’em. The Junker has apparently mended ways with his teammates since his days of screwing them over, and likewise, Rooney is claiming there is no rift between him and Owen.

It all seems too cogenial between these footballers doesn't it? Perhaps it's because they pull some of the nicest leg the world has to offer.

Consider Brazilian star Ronaldo, who's ex is Daniela Cicarella.

Rooney's fiance, Colleen McLoughlin (below left), on the other hand, while cute, is, shall we say, carrying a little too much luggage for her own good. Not that we want her to rail out like Beckham's Posh though. Ok, well maybe just a little. You be the judge.

Comments

[ali]

I LOVE YOU

[snake]

only to see her crawl back in right?

[Kid Dynamite]

Daniela Cicarella has a terrible ass. I'd kick her out of bed.

[jason]

victoria beckham doesn't look real..she looks like a wax figure with a great set of tits...

i have a wax figure fetish so it's cool

[sanjay]

beckham is a wanker.