Soccer: Where will Rooney go?

If the rumours are true and Wayne Rooney is leaving Manchester United, which clubs would be fighting for his signature?

The Indepedent's Sam Wallace looks at which sides would be in the running to sign the English striker.

MANCHESTER CITY odds 9-2
It would make City's signing of the former Manchester United striker Carlos Tevez last year - who was bought from a third party who had previously loaned him to United - look tame in comparison. The key problem for City signing Rooney would be the effect his contract would have on their attempts to meet the forthcoming Uefa financial fair play rules. But if Rooney is determined to leave then City will generate the most cash for the player. If it is a choice between him joining City for (pounds sterling)45m or leaving for nothing in June 2012 then there is no doubt which option the Glazers will take.

REAL MADRID 6-1
Jorge Valdano, the club's technical director, said yesterday that with Cristiano Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuain, Mesut Ozil and Angel Di Maria in the team, "who do we take out if Rooney comes?" Of course, when Madrid say they do not want a player it usually means they do. Those who say that they cannot see Rooney playing abroad are underestimating his determination. Jose Mourinho, who was undone at Chelsea by United's title-winning combination of Rooney and Ronaldo in 2007, was more sceptical. "I don't think he will [leave]," he said yesterday. "The big man [Ferguson] will persuade him to stay."

BARCELONA 12-1
Debts of (pounds sterling)370m have taken the edge off the spending power of the most attractive team in the world. No Englishman has played in any of the great Barcelona teams of the last seven years but Rooney would fit in. Lower rates of income tax in Europe would increase Barcelona's ability to meet Rooney's wage demands.

There was advice for Rooney yesterday from his former team-mate Roy Keane. "I would tell him to make sure he looks after No 1," Keane said. "Players are pieces of meat - that's how I look at it. When your time's up, your time's up."

CHELSEA 16-1
They refused to pay John Terry the wages that he would have been able to command at City in the summer of last year so it would not be easy to justify doing the same for Rooney if he is after (pounds sterling)200,000 a week. But this is the kind of deal that might just appeal to Roman Abramovich.

"You better ask Roman Abramovich directly," Carlo Ancelotti said yesterday. "I can't give an answer about this because it's not a good moment to say. Rooney is a United player, maybe he has some problems at the moment. Big teams want to keep top players like Rooney."

- THE INDEPENDENT