To ask English football to learn, is usually to ask too much. In the cycle of perpetual misfortune, England have carved themselves a comfortable little place – one festooned with cushions, lights and running water by the very men and women who pray for better everyday.Wayne Rooney and Jesus Christ have a lot in common. Both are featured in best selling books – Rooney’s albeit, of a more recent publication – both have faced trials and tribulations, births and resurrections and both at one point or another have offered hope to a group of disciples, disillusioned with the current state of things.
Both are messiahs. Just as Jesus rose, quickly, stealthily from anonymity, Rooney did too. Rooney scored, Jesus preached. The parallels are there for all to see, the overlap between the lives of two seemingly polar opposite characters.
But then again, it isn’t really a shock that comparisons have been made. Religious undertones are an ever present in modern day football reporting – symptomatic of the way religion has been used to articulate the feelings of fans, players and clubs over the last century.
In For The Hat Trick 