Rooney: Ambitious Brady important to Birmingham success

Wayne Rooney says “ambitious” Birmingham City minority owner Tom Brady is “fully involved” in the club’s push for promotion to the Premier League after being appointed as the club’s new coach on Wednesday.

Rooney, 37, resigned from his previous job as D.C. United head coach after being eliminated from Major League Soccer (MLS) playoff contention on Saturday and signed a 3.5-year contract on Wednesday. , became Birmingham’s new head coach.

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“I’ve spoken to Tom (Brady) and he’s very ambitious about taking the club forward,” Rooney told a news conference on Thursday. “It’s great to have him here and it’s important for the players to see Tom Brady’s involvement. It’s clear that Tom is fully involved in the club.”

Brady, who won seven NFL Super Bowls before retiring in February, became advisory board chairman and minority owner of the Birmingham club in August after forming a partnership with Knighthead Capital Management LLC, the Birmingham club’s owner.

Rooney outlined his ambition to lead Birmingham City, the second tier of English football, back to the Premier League, 12 years after they were relegated at the end of the 2010-11 season.

“The Premier League is where we want to be,” Rooney said. “That’s my ambition and that’s the club’s ambition and we’re doing everything we can to make sure we do that in the near future.”

The former Manchester United striker admits he is keen to return to English football after a spell coaching in the United States.

“It’s great to be back in English football,” Rooney said. “It’s obviously something I want to do and, to be honest, I’ve had opportunities to do it at other clubs in the last four or six weeks.

“But I think since speaking to Birmingham and seeing the ambition of the club and what they want to achieve, it’s exciting for me. Obviously the club wants to be successful and everything we’ve talked about is very similar. So it’s really It was easy for me to make the decision after talking to them.

“(I’m) excited to be back. Still a little jet-lagged! I haven’t been back long, but (I’m) excited to get going.”

Birmingham also announced that former Chelsea defender Ashley Cole and Rooney’s former Manchester United team-mate John O’Shea will form part of the club’s new first-team coaching staff.