England’s Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard look dejected after losing their Round of 16 clash against Germany in Bloemfontein during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Image: Paul Ellis/AFP
Manchester United and England great Wayne Rooney upset a lot of South Africans on Thursday when he claimed the 2010 World Cup was the worst in the history of the tournament.
Rooney, who has millions of fans in the country due to his association with Manchester United, was speaking on The Overlap podcast.
“It doesn’t get worse than South Africa,” Rooney said when Gary Neville asked whether the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico would be the worst of all time.
"We were travelling to the USA game, the first game. While we were driving to the game, it was pitch black, there's no fans there.
"The way you normally go to welcome the fans, it was nothing. It just didn't feel like a World Cup at all."
The 2010 edition, won by Spain national football team, was declared the “greatest ever” by then FIFA president Sepp Blatter, while the sentiment online continues to be positive.
Shakira and Freshlyground’s Waka Waka and Siphiwe Tshabalala’s opening goal against Mexico are fondly remembered by fans across the world.
But, considering how England performed at the 2010 World Cup, it’s no wonder that Rooney might not have warm and fuzzy feelings about it.
The mighty England, who were looking for their first win since 1966, arrived in South Africa on the back of a massive cheating scandal and leadership crisis. Skipper John Terry had been stripped of the armband for having an affair with a teammate’s wife. Rio Ferdinand, the man who replaced him as captain, was a late withdrawal due to injury.
In their opening game against the US in Rustenburg, Robert Green committed one of the biggest goalkeeping blunders when he let the ball squirm through his body following a tame Clint Dempsey shot. The match ended 1-1.
England’s second game was a goalless draw against Algeria in Cape Town, which saw the team booed off the field by their own fans. That did not sit well with Rooney. “Nice to see your own fans booing you. Loyal supporters,” the England striker said as he trudged off the field in a huff like a petulant toddler after the game. He later apologised, blaming his comments on the “heat of the moment” and extreme frustration.
In their third game, they earned a struggling 1-0 win over Slovenia, to seal second place in Group C.
Because they finished second, it meant their next opponents in the round of 16 would be the winners of Group D – the mighty Germans. Against Germany, England were outclassed in every department on the pitch and were beaten 4-1, ending their tournament with a whimper.
Two years ago, Terry bizarrely blamed Bloemfontein’s winter heat for their loss to Germany. Bloemfontein’s winters are cold and dry, with average daytime temperatures around 16–17 °C and nights often dropping close to freezing. It’s one of South Africa’s colder inland cities.
And to make sure that 2010 was a horror year for Rooney, things would only go from bad to worse for the Manchester United striker. A month after the World Cup, he was exposed for having cheated on his wife Coleen while she was pregnant with their first son Kai, who now plays for Manchester United’s Under-18s.
For many South Africans, however, Rooney’s assessment will ring hollow. The 2010 FIFA World Cup was a moment of national pride – the first time the tournament was hosted on African soil – and remains a defining cultural milestone that transcended results on the pitch.
If anything, Rooney’s comments highlight how differently a World Cup can be experienced: through the narrow lens of a struggling team, or through the collective joy of a country and continent that embraced the world.
IOL Sport