Shrewsbury Town duo Mat Sadler and Zak Whitbread have recounted playing alongside a young Wayne Rooney as they get ready to face the Manchester United captain's club in the FA Cup on Monday night.
Rooney may have some bad memories of Shrewsbury, having been in the Everton team which suffered a Cup shock against them in 2003, though he will not be in the squad for the upcoming match at New Meadow due to a knee injury.
Shrewsbury defenders Sadler and Whitbread can both recall the days when they mixed with Rooney. Sadler was a teammate of the England striker for the national under-17 side, while Texas-born Whitbread came up against Rooney when playing for Liverpool's under-19 team against Everton.
Sadler can still recall the build-up to the European U17 championships of 2002 with Rooney making his Everton debut the week before the tournament started.
The Shrewsbury left back told the Guardian: "I think Everton weren't going to let him come on the tournament because they wanted him to be involved in the first team. I remember thinking: 'Come on, that can't be the case', because at that age I wasn't even thinking about first-team football. But obviously he did really well in the tournament and flourished from there.
"He gets barracked at times but that documentary Gary Lineker did highlighted just how well he has done. He's still expected to do it now and still will do it now. He'll lead the line for England at the Euros, he'll be the captain, and if things don't go well he'll be the first one to get hammered, the first one who should come out the team. Yet he's done so much for English football."
Whitbread was at Liverpool from the age of eight to 22 -- but was actually a Manchester United supporter. He tried to keep his allegiance quiet at the time though. The Shrewsbury defender, who trained with New England Revolution in America over the summer while out of contract, recalls those days fondly.
He told the Daily Mail: "I was still going to odd United game when I was at Liverpool. I remember the Cantona dinked goal against Sunderland. He was my idol. When you see someone doing that as a kid, you think, 'That's the man'."
Recalling his encounter with Rooney, Whitbread said: "We were 1-0 up with 10 minutes to go when he came on and went like a tornado, here, there, everywhere. He scored two and they won 2-1. He was only 15 or 16.
"You could hear the buzz around the city. Nick Barmby [who was in the first-team squad] pulled me at the time and said: "What is this Rooney like?" The next minute he scores that goal against Arsenal and he was gone."
The locals at Shrewsbury will be deprived of Rooney's presence this evening, but their players' memories of the England captain show that they may not be dazzled by any of United's leading lights.