Wayne Rooney admits he ‘didn’t know’ what he was ‘doing’ during famous exchange with former Man Utd teammate

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Manchester United and England icon Wayne Rooney has now touched on one moment that has ‘defined’ him with fans outside of his remarkable playing career.

Wayne Rooney netted an incredible 253 times in 559 appearances for the Red Devils after Sir Alex Ferguson first signed him for Manchester United in 2004.

Man Utd’s all-time leading scorer lifted five Premier League trophies, a Champions League title, the Europa League, the FA Cup and three League Cups at the club.

Rooney is widely regarded as one of the best strikers of all time after his prolific playing career, but the 40-year-old also had ‘iconic’ moments off the field as well.

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Man Utd legend Wayne Rooney now addresses that 2011 tweet he made to Rio Ferdinand on Twitter

Wayne Rooney forever etched himself in social media folklore for football fans after his now-iconic tweet to former Manchester United teammate Rio Ferdinand.

The former Man Utd captain took to Twitter — now rebranded as X — back in 2011 and accidentally made his private message to Rio Ferdinand public in a tweet.

“Hi rio do u want picking up in the morning pal [sic],” Rooney posted back in the day.

Rooney has left the post up on the platform and the United legend has playfully teased his mistake during anniversaries of when he first posted the tweet.

During a Reddit AMA, the Red Devils and England icon was asked if he did actually pick former Three Lions teammate Ferdinand up in the car and Rooney responded.

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“I picked him up plenty of times,” he said.

“To be honest, on that tweet, I didn’t know what I was doing… I’m not the best with social media, and so I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Rooney added: “So I said to Rio, ‘Oh, I’ll tweet you.’ I was just messing around to see if it was working. But obviously I’ve done it to everybody. I think there’s a tweet to myself that I’ve sent as well.

“But yeah, I’ve picked him up quite a few times, yeah. He’s not a great passenger. He gets quite scared in the passenger seat. I was in Chicago last year with him driving and he was the same then.”

Rooney left Old Trafford in 2017 and the former Man Utd and Three Lions striker returned to boyhood club Everton for a brief second spell.

The former Birmingham City and Plymouth Argyle boss played for both DC United and Derby County before he called it time on his legendary football career in 2021.