The Quadrangle

Issue date: 10/6/04 Section: Web Exclusives

His name is Wayne Rooney, and he is poised to be the next big (British) football superstar, playing for one of England's most well known teams, Manchester United. Last week, he scored a spectacular hat trick in his debut game against the Turkish team Fenerbahce. The last time a Manchester United player scored a hat trick in his debut was in 1905.

"He is an ordinary lad and has a good work ethic about him," said Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who is known to the press only as Sir Alex. He says of Rooney, "He has been very impressive in training. He knows the English lads well. That's a blessing and is a good start."

Ferguson exhausted his entire budget for next season after buying up Rooney's 27 million pound (about 50 million dollars) contract from minor league team Everton at the end of last month. If his first game is any indication, however, Rooney looks to be a valuable purchase.

"Looking at him as an 18 year-old, I do not see where coaching comes in to it at this moment. He's got a natural instinct for the game and a natural ability to play anywhere. He is two-footed, quick, aggressive and a good header of the ball."

Manchester United is part of the Champions League, also known as the FA Premiership, one of the major leagues of football in the Europe. There are many smaller football clubs; Scotland has several and London has its own as well, which have different teams, similar to any American sport. The Brits are extremely loyal to their teams of fancy, and are often more intense than Americans are.

British football can be summed up in one sentence: it's American soccer, with much more rabid fans and the media publicity of the Yankees. The rules are the same, as there are still 11 people on a team, but the field sizes are slightly different, as Europe is on the metric system.

Football, as it's known overseas, has a much lengthier history than American football. It dates back to the second century B.C. in China, and was, for much of its history, a game in which players could touch the ball with their hands, which is now not allowed.

American football actually developed out of British football in the nineteenth century.
The first recorded proper American football match, as it is now known, was in Canada, at University College at the University of Toronto on November 9, 1861. American football in the States grew out of matches between Harvard University and McGill University of Montreal in 1874. Harvard played a game that was more based off of kicking rather than handling, which was favored by McGill, and so the two schools alternated between each of their sets of rules. Within a few years, however, the American football game became a bit more like rugby in that it became primarily a handling game, and by 1876, the first official ground rules were established. The rules changed little after that.

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