Inside Wayne Rooney’s boxing switch that is FIVE YEARS in making with both Jake Paul and KSI in Man Utd icon’s sights

10 months ago 50

WAYNE ROONEY’S plan to make a boxing switch might come as a shock to many – but it may just have been in the works for years.

The Manchester United legend is an avid fan of the noble art and even trained as a schoolboy at an amateur club in Liverpool.

But he chose football over boxing and went onto become one of England’s most talented players.

Rooney retired from playing in 2021 and has moved into coaching – but it appears as though he has a masterplan to make a move into boxing.

According to the Mirror, the Three Lions icon has held preliminary talks with Misfits Boxing.

Misfits – founded by YouTuber-turned boxer KSI – homes to celebrity-style crossover bouts aired on streaming service DAZN.

It has seen stars of the social media, MMA and boxing world all compete in big-money events.

And KSI once revealed Rooney actually reached out to him personally to try and discuss a fight between them.

He said last January: “It’s funny – I hope he doesn’t get annoyed that I said this – but Wayne Rooney hit me up being like, ‘Oh, we should fight.’

“And I said no. I just don’t want to do that. If Wayne Rooney is down, of course I think it would be good to have him in this space.”

Eddie Hearn – who promotes Anthony Joshua – has also discussed Rooney’s plan to get into boxing before.

Hearn said as far back as 2019: “He loves it. He’s been boxing in amateur clubs.

“Wayne would love to do a charity fight. All these guys, they love boxing.”

And Hearn has even had messages from Rooney and talked up the former Birmingham boss returning to Old Trafford to fight Jake Paul.

He told Rio Ferdinand last year: “I’ve actually spoke to Wayne a few times about the Jake Paul fight.

“Normally, if he has a couple of glasses of red he’ll fire in a message to me at night going, ‘Listen, I wanna fight that geezer.’

“Wayne can fight, he had a couple of amateur fights – but him against Jake Paul at Old Trafford, that’s actually a makeable fight.”

Rooney, infamously knocked out in his kitchen by friend Phil Bardsley, has been out of work since being sacked by Birmingham in January.