Rooney Part II New Autobiography in need of World Cup glory

A star in print: But sales of Wayne Rooney's first book flopped

Publishers Harper Collins are banking on a memorable World Cup for Wayne Rooney, having made the decision to bring out the second edition of their £5m five-book deal with the England talisman later in the year.

The first Rooney book was published in 2006 and was one of the England player autobiographies that sold very poorly in the wake of the disappointing performance in Germany. Distinguished writer Hunter Davies, who worked with Rooney on that expensive flop, was unable to coax much interesting material from the footballer.

This time Harper Collins have chosen a lowprofile ghostwriter in freelance journalist Matt Allen, who has credits from books about Jimmy Greaves and Wimbledon's Crazy Gang, as well as Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling's Jellyman's Throwing a Wobbly that had 10 weeks in the best-seller lists.



Rooney and Allen have already started their collaboration on the back of a domestic season which will see the goalscorer pick up every individual honour even if Manchester United don't win the Premier League title.

But one major irritation for Harper Collins is that BBC investigative journalist John Sweeney will have his controversial unofficial biography Rooney's Gold, published by political blogger Iain Dale's Biteback, in the shops on May 27 before the World Cup.

Legal warnings persuaded Random House to shelve the project three years ago but Sweeney retained copyright and has rewritten the manuscript.