Soccer: Bayern deny interest in 'ageing' Rooney

Bayern Munich have flatly denied they are willing to offer Wayne Rooney a way out of Manchester United.

Despite reports that Rooney, who delivered the second transfer request of his United career last month, has told team-mates at Old Trafford he will be playing under Pep Guardiola next season, Bayern's managing director, Matthias Sammer, said last night they had no interest in bringing the 27-year-old to Germany.

"I don't know what Rooney would bring to the Bundesliga," said Sammer. "All I can say is that while we respect Wayne Rooney, there has been no contact with him and he is not on our agenda. Absolutely not."

The worst-kept secret in German football is that Bayern have agreed a pre-contract with Robert Lewandowski, who will lead Borussia Dortmund's attack against them in the European Cup final at Wembley on 25 May.

While not asked directly about Rooney, the Bayern Munich midfielder, Thomas Müller, said one of the reasons behind the success of German football was that, "we have stopped buying ageing foreign players and trusted in our youth development".

Although Rooney is of an age when most strikers reach their peak, there are plenty of miles on his clock. He has been playing top-flight football since he was 16 and both the way he throws himself into games and the fluctuations in his weight in the close season do not suggest a long career.

But although Manchester United's new manager, David Moyes, has promised talks with the man he sold at Everton and hailed him as the "last street footballer" in a speech to the Cambridge Union, Rooney's options appear limited to staying at Old Trafford on vastly reduced terms, trying to move to Chelsea or joining David Beckham and other "ageing foreigners" for vast wages at Paris Saint-Germain.