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In a new docuseries, Tom Brady questioned former Birmingham City FC coach Wayne Rooney’s “work ethic”
Rooney, once England’s all-time leading scorer, slammed Brady’s comments as “unfair” and questioned his understanding of soccer
Brady became a minority owner in Birmingham’s soccer club in 2023
Wayne Rooney isn’t happy about Tom Brady questioning his “work ethic.”
In the new Amazon Prime docuseries Built in Birmingham: Brady & the Blues about the Birmingham City FC soccer team, Brady, 48, took umbrage with the former Manchester United star and then-Birmingham head coach, saying in one scene that he was “a little worried about our head coach’s work ethic.”
Brady became a minority owner in the English soccer team in 2023, while Rooney, 39, was named the team’s head coach for a short period of time between October 2023 and January 2024 before he was fired.
Rooney is now a soccer pundit for the BBC and has a new eponymous podcast coming out via BBC Sounds.
In one teaser clip for The Wayne Rooney Show shared by the outlet this week, the retired English soccer star called Brady’s characterization of him “very unfair” and insinuated that Brady doesn’t understand the differences between how a soccer player prepares for a game versus how a football player prepares for a game.
“I think Tom came in once, which was the day before a game where the days are a little bit lighter anyway, and I don’t think he really understood football that well,” Rooney said in the new podcast clip, per BBC, using the British term for soccer. “But what he does understand is, he’s a hard worker, we know that.”
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Tom Brady
Rooney added: “So that’s why I’m really disappointed with the comment, because football is not NFL. NFL works for three months in a year, players do need rest as well, so I think he was very unfair in the way he’s come out and portrayed that.”
Rooney, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest on-field performers in English soccer history as both Manchester United and the England national team’s all-time leading scorer, lasted only 15 games as the team’s coach before Birmingham City fired him.
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The firing came amid a tumultuous run for the team, which saw the squad drop to League One, the third tier of English football, amid a handful of coaching changes. Elsewhere in the docuseries, Brady called Birmingham’s players “lazy and entitled,” according to BBC.
“When I went into Birmingham, they were in a mess, really,” Rooney said in the clip shared this week by BBC. “Hence the fact that the players weren’t really the players who could take the club forward. You had Tony Mowbray, Gary Rowett after me, who also struggled as well.”
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Wayne Rooney
Birmingham fired Rowett, Rooney’s replacement, after just eight games and hired Chris Davies to replace him.
Since then, Birmingham has bounced back to the Championship league, which is one league below the top Premier League – something Rooney gave Brady credit for on his podcast.
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“Listen, I respect Tom Brady massively — he’s one of the greatest, if not the greatest athlete of all time,” Rooney said. “And Birmingham do look like they are getting it right now, which is good and I think what they have done is got the players out that they needed to get out.”
Read the original article on People
