Wayne Rooney may have spent most of his career away from Everton, but he scored some truly stunning goals for the Toffees.
Everton’s attack has been faltering over recent weeks, with a consistent stream of goals seemingly hard to come by on Merseyside.
David Moyes has tried to mix things up in attack having handed an opportunity to Armando Broja in the last two games.
How Everton could do with a player of Rooney’s quality now.
The England legend was not the only talented player Everton had at the time with Francis Jeffers hailed as good as Rooney by one former academy chief.
Since leaving his latest managerial role, Rooney has been seen around the club with visits to the new stadium.
And he will have enamoured himself even further with the Everton fans following his latest comments on Mohamed Salah.
Everton legend Wayne Rooney drops overrated claim on Mohamed Salah
Rooney made his return to Goodison Park back in 2017 where he spent a season with his boyhood club.
Duncan Ferguson distanced himself from Rooney during his early days, but the Englishman returned to Merseyside as the England legend he’s known as today.
Speaking on The Overlap, Rooney has taken aim at Salah after his goal against Everton won the Goal of the Season over his halfway line attempt at Goodison.
“No, Salah’s one where he just cut in with his left foot like a normal goal,” he responded to Carragher about his goal from distance not being selected.
“I think he won the Puskas Award and everything for it.”
The goal caused a lot of controversy after it was named the Puskas Award winner for the 2017/18 campaign.
Carragher said Rooney was not an Everton legend, but he certainly provided some stunning moments for the Blues.
And the hat-trick against West Ham, including that staggering goal from the halfway-line, was certainly one of those moments.
Although Everton fans will recognise Salah’s goal was an impressive one there won’t be many who think it was better than Rooney’s.
- READ MORE: Tottenham eyeing another former Everton manager to replace Ange Postecoglou, it’s not Marco Silva
Wayne Rooney’s incredible halfway-line goal against West Ham
It was Rooney’s first-ever Everton hat-trick and it took him until his second stint at the club to achieve it.
Ironically, Rooney was playing in midfield for that game, with Sam Allardyce set to arrive at the club in the following days.
“I’d been dropped actually. Then Undy [David Unsworth] came in and they were promoting all of the U21s players,” said Rooney.
“Sam Allardyce was coming in after the West Ham game. So, I think Sam told Undy to play me and he played me in midfield and I scored a hat-trick.”
He may not have been given the lead role in Everton’s attack, but the Englishman’s quality was still on display from a deeper role.
What a way to net your first-ever hat-trick for the club and it is clear he still feels his goal deserved more recognition than it got.
Receive a digest of our best Everton content each week direct to your mailbox
