MANCHESTER UNITED made a big investment when they signed a young Wayne Rooney from Everton in 2004.
The Red Devils forked out nearly £30million for the 18-year-old Everton striker, but in today's market, he would have set the club back a considerably higher fee.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire and Jason Laws from the University of Liverpool have created an inflation calculator that can figure out the current prices of players from the past.
Maguire has explained how the process works on Twitter, he said: "It’s based on total revenues generated by PL each season.
"On basis that spending (either on wages or transfer fees) is linked to the ability to pay and therefore income generated by clubs, so reflects the inflation from higher ticket prices, TV deals etc."
And through this process, it has been suggested that with inflation Manchester United would have had to pay a massive £118m to acquire the Everton prodigy.
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This fee would have made Rooney the most expensive teenager in the world up until 2017 when Kylian Mbappe joined PSG from Monaco.
The French star cost the Ligue 1 giants £147m.
However, despite the massive fee, it can be claimed that Rooney proved to be a brilliant investment for the Red Devils.
The Englishman went on to help the club win five Premier League titles as well as one FA Cup, three League Cups, one Champions League and one Europa League Cup.
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And he became the club's all-time leading scorer with 253 goals, as well as providing145 assists for his team-mates.
Rooney admitted that he forced the move to Manchester United, despite Chelsea willing to pay more money for him.
The striker initially wanted to stay at Everton, but insisted that if he was to leave, it would only be for Old Trafford.
He told Tony Bellew's BBC Podcast in 2021: “I was getting pushed to go and play for Chelsea because they offered the most money, but I said ‘you’re not dictating where I go – I want to go to Manchester United’.
“It was lost money for Everton, but that’s where I wanted to play. I didn’t want to go to London, I didn’t want to go to Chelsea. But I got told the only way you’re going to Man Utd is if you put a transfer request in.
“This was in Moyesy’s office. So I went into the canteen and wrote ‘I Wayne Rooney request a transfer from Everton Football Club’ on a napkin, or something! Walked back into Moyesy’s office and said ‘there you go’.
“I felt I got backed into a corner to a certain extent, but that’s football.”
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