Wayne Rooney Critiques World Cup Final Half-Time Show

The World Cup final in New Jersey was supposed to showcase football’s grandest stage. Instead, as Spain and Argentina waited in the MetLife Stadium dressing rooms, the sport briefly played second fiddle to a made-for-TV spectacle that left one of England’s greatest forwards cold.

FIFA stretched the traditional 15-minute interval to more than 27 minutes to squeeze in an 11‑minute half-time show featuring Madonna, Shakira, Justin Bieber and a cast of global stars. The idea was clear: a Super Bowl-style centrepiece for the global game.

Rooney wanted none of it.

Working pitchside as a BBC pundit alongside Joe Hart and Micah Richards, the 40-year-old was asked by presenter Gabby Logan for his highlight of the show. He didn’t bother dressing it up.

“I’ll be honest, mine was when it finished,” he said. No smile. No caveat. Just a straight verdict from a man who has spent his life treating half-time as a place for team talks, not pyrotechnics.

“I like a lot of them artists but I thought it was crap,” Rooney continued. “It just didn’t get me going and I wanted the football to come back on. I like Burna Boy, I like Bieber, I like Shakira, but that was too flat.”

Richards, who had picked Shakira and Nigerian star Burna Boy as his standout moments from the performance, couldn’t resist a jab, labelling his former England team-mate “miserable” on air. Logan, picking up the mood after a BBC promo, quipped: “I’ll tell you what else you get on the BBC: honest reviews.”

There was no shortage of ambition behind FIFA’s decision. President Gianni Infantino had unveiled plans for the show in March last year, handing curation duties to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. The final product was a glossy, star-studded carousel.

Madonna was driven onto the pitch by Brazil legends Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. South Korean giants BTS took their turn. Characters from the Muppets and Sesame Street wandered into the occasion. It was loud, bright, and meticulously choreographed.

What it wasn’t, at least for some watching from the studio, was necessary.

Across town on ITV, Roy Keane delivered his own typically blunt assessment. “It was a bit of an anti-climax, but I think the people in the stadium probably enjoyed it more than us,” he said, before softening just a touch. “But it’s always nice to see Shakira.”

The show did come with a cause. It was staged in support of the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, an initiative aiming to raise 100 million US dollars to expand access to education and football for children worldwide. That message, though, had to fight for space amid the celebrity roll call.

The build-up to kick-off had already felt like a red-carpet event. The closing ceremony featured Hollywood actor Tom Cruise, pop star Robbie Williams and US singer Jennifer Hudson. Pussycat Dolls frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger, Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini and streamer IShowSpeed all performed before the teams emerged, alongside Post Malone and rapper Swae Lee.

By the time the referee finally called the players back out, the night had seen almost as many chart-toppers as clear-cut chances.

In the United States, this kind of halftime extravaganza is part of the sporting fabric, the Super Bowl long since turning its interval into an entertainment juggernaut. FIFA clearly wants a slice of that audience, that noise, that crossover appeal.

Rooney’s reaction cut through the fireworks. For one of the game’s most recognisable faces to dismiss the show as “crap” on the BBC, live, during the World Cup final, underlined a tension at the heart of modern football: how far can the sport lean into spectacle before the players and purists start to push back?

On this evidence, the debate over what half-time should look like on football’s biggest night is only just getting started.