Former footballer Wayne Rooney credited the PSP as one of the reasons for his success at Manchester United.
Rooney played for Manchester United from 2004 to 2017, a period during which the club won five Premier League titles, the FA Cup, three League Cups, four Community Shields, the Europa League, and the Champions League.
In an interview on The Wayne Rooney Show podcast (via VGC) regarding the launch of EA Sports FC 26 – a series he frequently featured on when it was branded FIFA – Rooney stated: “I used to play a lot of FIFA and Call of Duty, [but] I haven’t played much recently. I played Pro Clubs with some YouTubers, which was fun.”
When asked if he was good at EA Sports FC, he jokingly replied: “Yes, I’m brilliant, I probably could’ve been in the world’s top 100.”
However, Rooney explained that during his playing career, the Manchester United team played the PSP extensively – something he attributes to the team’s success during his tenure there.
“Know what we used to play? Not FIFA. True story – at Manchester United I genuinely believe a big part of our success was playing the PSP,” he detailed. “Honestly, because it helped us communicate more. We’d play on planes, on the team bus. You’d play 5v5 – so it’d be me, Rio [Ferdinand], Michael Carrick, John O’Shea, Wes Brown in 5v5. It was called SOCOM on PSP.”
“You had to communicate, be tactically correct, run to revive people when they died. That was a massive part of our success, I reckon. Ask any player from that era – it was brilliant. Honestly, how you played that game reflected the real player’s style – it was wild,” he explained.
“Michael Carrick was that sneaky quiet guy – you’d lie hidden, then hear a grenade bounce where he’d thrown it. I was full-on, in trenches on the front line charging in. This might surprise you, but it was a huge part of our success,” Rooney emphasized. “I still say part of our winning culture came from that game, believe me. We were all together – sometimes arguing, shouting when PSPs got thrown. Unbelievable really.”
