Everton boss Ronald Koeman reveals interest in signing Manchester United star

Everton boss Ronald Koeman has admitted to being interested in signing Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney. The 31-year-old forward has struggled at Old Trafford this season, losing his place in the first-choice United side.

Reports have suggested the record-breaking star may be deemed surplus to requirements by United manager Jose Mourinho. And now, Koeman has revealed he would be open to the prospect of signing Rooney.

"He is a great player, and he has still not finished his career," Koeman said of the United captain, according to the BBC.

Rooney is a boyhood Everton fan and spent the early years of his career at Goodison Park, before joining United in 2004. Koeman admitted he would like to sign Rooney, if he ever became available for transfer.

"I do not know how his situation is, and I need to respect that situation. That's not my problem. But even when we get one time the possibility that Rooney is an option for Everton, I'm very pleased."

However, United boss Jose Mourinho insisted recently that he would never sell Rooney, who has scored 246 goals in 532 games for the club. "I will never make that decision. A player of his stature, a player of his history in the club will never go to point where club or manager want to make that decision for him," he said of United's captain.

"I put him [Rooney] on the bench for three matches in a row. That is hard for him, hard for me, so that is being ruthless, to put in my mind the interests of the team in front of the player, prestige, status. In this case even legend. To put on bench a player with the numbers he has for club and country is hard.

"But as we were saying before, this is an industry where the people who leads, sometimes in a correct decision, sometimes not correct decisions, but in our mind the decisions we think is the best for the team."