Wayne Rooney Recalls ‘Awkward’ Conversation With Jamie Vardy About Leicester Striker’s Wife During Euro 2016

Former Manchester United man, Wayne Rooney has said that he was asked to have words with Jamie Vardy about his wife’s media duties during the Euro 2016 tournament. 

According to Rooney’s statement in the ongoing ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial, England manager and assistant manager at the time, Roy Hodgson and Gary Neville were both concerned that Vardy’s wife, Rebekah’s involvement in the media was a distraction for the England squad.

Rooney and his teammates endured an embarrassing Euro campaign in 2016, when they were shockingly dumped out by Iceland in the last 16 of that tournament. 

Jamie Vardy and Wayne Rooney during Euro 2016, image credit - Alamy

England’s record goal scorer said: “They asked me as captain to see if I could speak to Mr Vardy on issues regarding his wife. We all knew that it was an awkward subject so I needed to speak to Mr Vardy and ask him to speak to his wife – and ask him to ask his wife to calm down.”

Rooney later recalled the manner of the conversation, he said: “ I remember the conversation I had with Jamie. It was a bit awkward for me to have to speak with a teammate regarding his wife. I sat down with Jamie Vardy, I had a coffee and he had a red bull. It was such an awkward moment.”

The Derby manager also added: “ Mrs Vardy was almost there with the team, she was on FaceTime a lot.”

In a written statement, Rooney is said to be surprised that details of his conversation with Vardy were later reported in the Sun. 

Rebekah Vardy had told the court that her husband denied having a conversation with Rooney about her media duties causing distractions for the England team at Euro 2016.

Rooney told the court the conversation definitely happened: “I 100% spoke to Mr Vardy about the situation. If he wants to relay that back to his wife, that is entirely his business.”

The ‘Wagatha Christie’ court case started after Rebekah Vardy sued Coleen Rooney for libel, after Coleen claimed that Rebekah was passing stories from a private Instagram account to the Sun newspaper. 

The trial is ongoing.