Kai Rooney banned Wayne from touchlines as United teenager forges his own path

Kai Rooney, the 16-year-old son of Manchester United and England legend Wayne Rooney, once asked his father to stop attending his matches after the attention Wayne attracted made it impossible for him to watch from the stands.

Coleen Rooney revealed the episode during her appearance on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here in 2024. “Kai told Wayne to stop coming to football games, when he played grassroots tournaments and stuff because he used to get swarmed and he couldn’t even watch the game,” she said. “He just said, ‘Oh, dad there’s no point you coming because you don’t even watch me play anyway.’ Which is sad, but it can’t be helped.”

The ban appears to have run its course. Wayne was spotted at several of Kai’s matches last season as his son began to establish himself in Manchester United’s Under-18 setup, scoring regularly at age-group level and making his Old Trafford debut in the FA Youth Cup.

Kai’s path through United’s academy has drawn inevitable comparisons with his father, who captained the club and became one of its all-time leading scorers. Yet the younger Rooney has faced a level of public scrutiny that Wayne never encountered at the same stage — his name generating headlines long before he played a competitive senior minute.

The family has also navigated a more painful footballing moment. Kai’s younger brother Cass spent time in Everton’s academy — the club where Wayne first made his name — but was released after playing for the Under-7s. Coleen described the moment on The Therapy Crouch podcast, recounting how she called Wayne and asked him to break the news to Cass himself.

For Kai, the trajectory remains upward. Multiple appearances for United’s Under-18s and that FA Youth Cup outing at Old Trafford suggest the academy is treating him on merit rather than surname — which, given everything the family has had to manage in public, may be the most important detail of all.