Fergie backs Rooney for gong
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Sir Alex Ferguson has earmarked Wayne Rooney for the Footballer of the Year gong.
Rooney's Manchester United team-mate Ryan Giggs scooped the PFA Player of the Year award last Sunday and now attention turns the Football Writers' award and Ferguson has backed the 23-year-old to land the honour.
"I don't think anyone could argue with him as Footballer of the Year. He's certainly been consistent enough," the United boss said in The Observer.
Rooney has caught the eye of late playing in a wide-left role for the Red Devils and Ferguson has been impressed with the manner in which the former Everton man has taken on the role.
Ferguson added: "Wayne is actually starting to enjoy playing on the left now. He's still scoring goals, but in a different way.
"Where he eventually settles down depends on the make-up of the rest of the team, but he's capable of playing anywhere in a forward position and the great thing is he's happy to make any position work."
Rooney scored his first Premier League goal against Arsenal as a 16-year-old and seven years later the England international is set to face the Gunners for a place in the final of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday.
And Ferguson revealed United were tracking the Liverpool-born forward when he was in the Everton academy before forking out £26 million to land the former Toffee.
"When we signed Wayne, it was a bargain at the time. We knew what we were getting," the Scot said in The News of the World.
"We had identified him a long time before that. We tried to get him at 14 and then again when he was 16.
"Eventually we had to pay that money for him. I said to him if he had joined us earlier he could have had the £26million for himself!
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he will even win the ballon d'or someday too.