´Wealthy´ Rooney defends agent in court case

England and Manchester United star Wayne Rooney admitted Friday his agent had helped make him a “very wealthy young man,” as he testified in a court case involving his former management company.

Rooney, being sued for £4.3 million in a contractual dispute, said he had great trust in agent Paul Stretford and was grateful to him for furthering his career.

The company Stretford founded, Proactive, claims it is owed the money in unpaid commission, even though the agent has now left the firm.

The civil court in Manchester heard that the young football prodigy, then 17, was signed up by Stretford in 2002 as he rose to stardom with his home-town club Everton.

Stretford brokered multi-million pound deals with sponsors including Nike and Coca-Cola for Rooney and also acted for his wife Coleen.

Her career as a celebrity columnist took off as her husband established himself as an England regular following his 20 million pound move to Manchester United in 2004.

The court heard Thursday that a marketing strategy devised for Rooney, now 24, was designed to portray him as a “street striker” and the antithesis of the cleancut David Beckham.

Proactive argues it was supposed to receive 20 percent commission from the deals but since Stretford left the firm in acrimonious circumstances in October 2008, no further commission payments have been made.

The company’s lawyers claim that, under the terms of the contract Stretford signed with the Rooneys while he was working for the firm, Proactive is still due the payments — now amounting to at least 4.3 million pounds.

Asked by lawyer Ian Mill, acting for Proactive, what “commercial assistance” his agent gave him, Rooney said: “My football career and football stuff has to come first.

“Then obviously when I have got days when I have got my commercial stuff they make sure everything is done right and set up properly and day-to-day life with my wife and child, stuff that’s in the newspapers, they deal with all that.”

Rooney said he did not believe Proactive could continue to take care of his commercial interests after Stretford quit the company.

But Mill suggested the only reason Proactive was not able to provide services for Rooney was because the star did not want it to.

“As I said before, I wanted Mr. Stretford to look after me,” the striker replied, adding: “I didn’t think Proactive could provide the services.

“Nobody from Proactive called me to say ‘we can provide the services for you’.”

Rooney added: “Before Mr Stretford was basically sacked from the company, nobody explained he was going to be sacked and that they could still do things for me.”

The figure of Rooney’s total earnings has been disclosed to the judge and lawyers, but cannot be disclosed to the media and public.

The case continues.