Former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney admitted his acting in an infamous 2011 wine commercial was horrendous on Monday during an interview on Capital Breakfast radio.
The 40-year-old former footballer reflected on the TV advert for Chilean wine brand Casillero del Diablo, who served as the official wine partner of Manchester United, after radio hosts Chris Stark and Jordan North brought up his past acting roles.
In the commercial, Rooney starred alongside his former Manchester United teammates Ryan Giggs and Patrice Evra, dramatically telling them that a new devil was arriving at the race club before the video cut to a shot of the wine bottle.
Rooney spent 13 seasons at Manchester United, becoming the club's all-time leading goalscorer with 253 goals and winning five Premier League titles alongside Giggs and Evra under manager Sir Alex Ferguson. During that era, the North West English club secured numerous global sponsorship deals, including partnership agreements with international beverage brands.
During Monday's broadcast, host Chris Stark joked about the commercial, asking Rooney about the red wine advert. Rooney admitted that some of his past commercials were terrible and described the wine advertisement as shocking.
The radio hosts then played a clip from the ad, featuring Rooney reciting his lines: "Guys, we have a problem. The boss said that new devil is arriving.... They say he is a legend."
When asked if he felt embarrassed by the performance at the time, Rooney laughed and explained that he had been dressed in a suit he disliked while looking out a window and rubbing his chin to express concern.
He revealed that by the time he saw the finished product, it was already too late to change anything because the broadcast was already out and looked horrendous.
The Real Rooneys Docuseries
Rooney discussed the commercial while promoting his new fly-on-the-wall Disney+ docuseries, titled The Real Rooneys, alongside his wife Coleen Rooney.
The upcoming television series follows the couple after they allowed cameras into their home for a year to record the highs and lows of their marriage, family life and business endeavours.
Disney+ is a global subscription streaming service, while docuseries focusing on high-profile sporting figures and their families have grown increasingly popular across major digital platforms.
A central feature of the documentary is a detailed tour of their palatial Cheshire property, dubbed The Morrisons Mansion, which the couple constructed from the ground up in 2022 across 50 acres of farmland.
Cheshire, located in North West England, is known for its rural countryside estates and has long been a popular residential area for Premier League footballers and television personalities.
Coleen Rooney spoke about the home, which they share with their four sons, Kai, 16, Klay, 13, Kit, ten, and Cass, eight, stating that the house is everything she had dreamed of since she was a young girl.
As a montage of the estate showed various rooms, Coleen explained that as a child drawing a house, everything is drawn symmetrically with the door in the middle and matching sides.
The extensive property includes an array of luxury amenities, featuring a private cinema, an indoor swimming pool, an underground spa, a dedicated wine cellar, and a full football pitch built for their four children.
Inside the Cheshire Mansion
Wayne Rooney confessed that he took no part in designing or planning the main house, explaining that he had only requested two specific additions for himself.
He stated that he only wanted a small room with no windows - not 'cause I'm a psycho - but if I was playing PlayStation games or watching a movie, along with space for his snooker table.
PlayStation is a video game console brand manufactured by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which Rooney has frequently mentioned playing during his sports career.
Footage from the docuseries highlights Rooney's dedicated games room, showing a musical keyboard, a large cinema screen, and a pinball machine. He is also shown walking into an indoor pool room that houses an ice bath.
In contrast, Coleen Rooney prioritized her dressing space when building the mansion, noting that she requested a particularly large dressing room during the initial construction planning.
She explained that while building plans shifted over time, she still retained a large dressing room, though not quite as big as originally intended. She added that while builders asked if she could share the space with her husband, she refused, leaving Rooney with a few separate wardrobes.
Family Life and Origins
The property also displays several personal touches, including black-and-white portraits of their four sons, memorabilia from Coleen's appearance on the reality television show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, and a statue commemorating one of Rooney's goal celebrations.
Coleen Rooney noted that while the house is massive with many rooms inside where she can lose her children, everything about their dream home was planned around their four sons.
Rooney added that since building the Cheshire residence, he had previously spent extended periods away working, making his current time at home with his family particularly meaningful.
Reflecting on their journey from their childhood in Merseyside, Rooney remarked that it still felt surreal to compare their current lifestyle with where they grew up in Croxteth as two kids from Liverpool.
