Wayne Rooney Critiques World Cup Final Half-Time Show
Wayne Rooney slams World Cup final half-time show: ‘I thought it was crap’
The first World Cup final half-time show was billed as a global spectacle. Eleven minutes of star power, a stretched interval, a Super Bowl-style statement on football’s biggest stage.
Wayne Rooney hated it.
FIFA had extended the break in the final between Spain and Argentina at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, turning the usual 15-minute pause into a 27-minute TV event. Madonna, Shakira, Justin Bieber, Burna Boy, BTS, the Muppets, Sesame Street characters – it was designed as a blockbuster.
Rooney, sat high in the stands working as a BBC pundit alongside Joe Hart and Micah Richards, cut straight through the gloss.
Asked by presenter Gabby Logan for his highlight of the show, the former England captain didn’t bother dressing it up.
“I’ll be honest, mine was when it finished,” he said. “I like a lot of them artists but I thought it was crap.
“It just didn’t get me going and I wanted the football to come back on. I like Burna Boy, I like Bieber, I like Shakira, but that was too flat.”
No diplomacy. No nod to the sponsors. Just a footballer’s instinctive reaction to an extended delay before the second half of a World Cup final.
Richards, who was more taken by the occasion and picked out Shakira and Nigerian star Burna Boy as his standout performers, laughed off Rooney’s verdict and branded his former international team-mate “miserable” on air. Logan, leaning into the bluntness of the exchange after a BBC promotional advert, added: “I’ll tell you what else you get on the BBC: honest reviews.”
FIFA president Gianni Infantino had first announced plans for the show back in March of last year, selling it as a landmark moment. The production was curated by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and packed with big set pieces: Madonna being driven onto the pitch by Brazil legends Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, a performance from South Korean giants BTS, and walk-on roles for beloved characters from the Muppets and Sesame Street.
It was a clear nod to American sporting culture. Half-time entertainment has long been central to the NFL’s Super Bowl, where the break is almost as talked about as the game itself. On this stage, though, the reaction in the TV studios was far cooler.
Over on ITV, Roy Keane echoed some of that deflation. “It was a bit of an anti-climax,” he said, before softening slightly. “But I think the people in the stadium probably enjoyed it more than us. But it’s always nice to see Shakira.”
The show did carry a serious purpose behind the fireworks. It was staged in support of the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, an initiative aiming to raise 100 million US dollars (£75 million) to expand access to education and football for children worldwide.
The sense of occasion had started long before the half-time lights came up. The closing ceremony before kick-off read like a red carpet roll call. Hollywood actor Tom Cruise appeared, joined by pop star Robbie Williams and US singer Jennifer Hudson. Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger, Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini and streamer IShowSpeed all performed, alongside Post Malone and rapper Swae Lee.
On paper, it was a night when football, music and celebrity collided on an unprecedented scale.
On the gantry, as the players waited to re-emerge and the clock ticked towards the half-hour mark for a break that should have lasted 15 minutes, Rooney spoke for a large section of traditionalists watching at home.
The game, he made clear, didn’t need the extra noise.
