From enfant terrible to daddy cool

“He had a bit of a temper; he lost his head seemingly in important situations,but it’s something he’s gotten control over,” said Jonathan Spector,a defender with the United States,who will face Rooney and England on June 12 in Rustenburg,South Africa.

“In the past,players tried to get into his head,knowing he could snap,” said Spector,who plays for West Ham United in the English Premier League. “It doesn’t seem to happen anymore.”

A sign of Rooney’s new-found maturity at 24,we are assured,is fatherhood. After an exhibition match last week,Rooney unveiled on his back a tattoo of praying hands and angels’ wings etched with the name of his 6-month-old son,Kai.

As the World Cup approaches,Rooney is widely considered the planet’s second-best football player behind Lionel Messi of Argentina. He enters the tournament having scored 34 goals in all competitions this past season for Manchester United,shouldering greater responsibility after Cristiano Ronaldo left for Real Madrid.

Father’s wisdom

Older and wiser is how Rooney described himself at a news conference last month in London. By this he presumably meant that he is no longer encumbered by stories of his admitted visits to prostitutes as a teenager; libelous tabloid accusations (for which he won a lawsuit in 2006) that he had slapped his wife,Coleen (then his fiancée),in a nightclub; or reports of gambling losses that surpassed $1 million in one spree.

On the field,this son of a Liverpool family of amateur boxers has curbed his pugilistic instincts.

“You are excited and emotional when you make decisions,but now I have matured on and off the pitch,” Rooney said at the news conference. “Now,I probably take my anger out during training the week before the game.”

Rooney’s knee,ankle and groin injuries in the last two months have put England in a familiar and conflicted position — hoping to win the World Cup,fearing things will end too early,as they have since a triumph on home soil in 1966.

Landon Donovan,the American midfielder,has said that Rooney seems “worn out” after a long club season. Fabio Capello has declared Rooney “100 per cent” fit. Capello is England’s manager,not a doctor or a palm reader. A country expectantly and fretfully waits. Perhaps none of the World Cup contenders are as dependent on one player as England is on Rooney.

Nation’s hopes

With him in good health,the Three Lions could reach the final or even win. If his body breaks down Rooney broke a toe in the 2004 European championships and just before the 2006 World Cup many feel that England’s chances will be equally fractured.

“The whole country would go into mourning,” said Barry Glendenning,a football writer for The Guardian.

Chunky and meaty-faced,Rooney was conspicuously absent from the group of sculptured international football stars photographed for the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine. But he relies on six-shooter legs,not six-pack abs. At his best,Rooney is an incessant worker,deceptively fast on the ball,instinctual in finding a sliver of space,solid in the air,able to shoot from anywhere and increasingly smarter about his runs into the box.

“Maturity is one of the final parts of a player’s development,” Manchester United Manager Alex Ferguson said. “You have to wait until their mid-20s before they get that authority,timing,the maturity,to do things that those qualities bring. This season,he accepted the fact that to get the best out of himself,he had to conserve his energies for the best part of the pitch — the penalty box area.”

Nine of the 23 Americans on the World Cup roster played in England this past season,so the United States will be more than familiar with Rooney. Man-marking him is too risky,several of the Americans said.

In the past,said goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann,who plays for Wolverhampton,Rooney’s Vesuvian eruptions were regular and predictable enough to mark with an egg timer.

“The bad thing is now he’s controlling his temper,” Hahnemann said.