Rooney fired as head coach in second-tier league as well

Plymouth Argyle of the English Professional Soccer Championship (second tier league) announced on Tuesday on the club's website that they had “terminated the contract of head coach Wayne Rooney.” Rooney, who took charge of Plymouth in May last year, has left behind a record of four wins, six draws, and 13 losses in 23 Championship games in the 2024-2025 season. Plymouth finished last year's campaign in last place out of 24 clubs in the division, with three draws and six losses in their last nine matches.

Rooney is an England soccer legend who was an iconic striker during his playing days. He scored 53 goals in 120 A-match appearances for England and is third on the all-time goalscoring list with 208 goals in 491 appearances for Manchester United, Everton, and other clubs in the English Premier League. At Manchester United, where he led the club to five titles in the top-tier league, he was once teammates with South Korean soccer legend Park Ji-Sung.

His record as a head coach is less stellar. Rooney began his managerial career with Derby County in the English Championship in 2021. However, he resigned after the team finished 23rd in the Championship in the 2021-2022 season and was relegated to the third-tier league. He then went on to coach DC United in the Major League Soccer (MLS) (2022-2023) in the U.S. and Birmingham City in the English Championship (2023-2024), but resigned due to poor results.


Yun-Cheol Jeong trigger@donga.com