Listening to SuBo calms me down, says Wayne Rooney

LONDON - Wayne Rooney says listening to Susan Boyle helps him relax before crucial matches.

The Manchester United and England star is a huge fan of the former Britain’s Got Talent contestant and often cranks up the volume on his iPod when he puts on her songs while traveling to matches, or when he’s in the dressing room.

While team-mates like Rio Ferdinand have rap music blaring out to get ready for big games, the fiery-tempered Rooney has revealed he prefers to chill out to SuBo’s chart-topping album ‘The Gift’.

Boyle, whose debut album ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ got to No.1 in the charts in nine different countries, released her second album earlier this year.

And Rooney, who returned from injury last month, is a big fan.

“For some reason before the last few games I’ve been listening to Susan Boyle,” the Daily Star quoted him as saying.

“I think it just relaxes me. Her new album is really good and it calms me down,” he said.

Rooney says he also listens to the Stereophonics, Mumford and Sons and the Kings of Leon but has discarded the thousands of songs that his Three Lions team-mate Shaun Wright-Phillips recommended during the World Cup in South Africa.

“Shaun put some songs on my iPod when we were at the World Cup, I think there was 10,000 songs on it!” Rooney said.

“There were about three that I actually listened to, so I tend to go back to my own ones.

“When we’re in the hotel before we go for our pre-match meal, I always put the Stereophonics on.

“Then, in the dressing room before games, I tend to listen to more relaxing music like Susan Boyle. But it changes all the time,” the footballer added. (ANI)