Wayne Rooney Calls World Cup Half-Time Show ‘Crap’

Wayne Rooney has never been one for soft edges, and he didn’t find any in FIFA’s first World Cup final half-time extravaganza.

As Spain and Argentina waited in the MetLife Stadium dressing rooms in New Jersey, the interval stretched from the traditional 15 minutes to more than 27 to accommodate an 11‑minute show fronted by some of the biggest names in global music. On paper, it was heavyweight: Madonna, Shakira, Justin Bieber, Burna Boy, BTS, a dash of Muppets and Sesame Street, all under the creative eye of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.

In Rooney’s eyes, it bombed.

The former England captain, working pitchside for the BBC alongside Joe Hart and Micah Richards, was asked by presenter Gabby Logan for his highlight of the spectacle. He didn’t bother dressing it up.

“I’ll be honest, mine was when it finished,” the 40-year-old said. “I like a lot of them artists but I thought it was crap.

“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.”

The line landed like a tackle. Richards, who had picked out Shakira and Nigerian star Burna Boy as his standout acts, laughed and branded his former Manchester City and England team-mate “miserable” for the verdict. Logan, leaning into the moment after a BBC promo, added pointedly: “I’ll tell you what else you get on the BBC: honest reviews.”

This was the bold new frontier FIFA president Gianni Infantino had teased back in March last year: a Super Bowl-style half-time show dropped into the sport’s most sacred 90 minutes. The governing body extended the break, rolled out the stars and tried to fuse football’s biggest stage with American-style entertainment culture.

The script was lavish. Madonna arrived on the pitch in theatrical fashion, driven in by Brazil icons Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. South Korean giants BTS performed. Characters from the Muppets and Sesame Street wandered into the mix. It was loud, glittering, and unmistakably designed for a global television audience.

Inside the stadium, fans were given a full-blown concert in the middle of the World Cup final. At home, viewers were left waiting almost half an hour for the second half to restart.

On ITV, Roy Keane struck a cooler tone but still felt underwhelmed.

“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 adding with a wry smile: “But it’s always nice to see Shakira.”

Around the show, FIFA wrapped a worthy cause. The event was staged in support of the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which aims to raise 100 million US dollars to expand access to education and football for children worldwide. It was a serious message packaged in a blaze of pop culture.

The spectacle had actually begun long before the referee’s first whistle. The closing ceremony read like a red carpet call sheet: Hollywood actor Tom Cruise, pop star Robbie Williams and US singer Jennifer Hudson all featured. Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger, Italian star Laura Pausini and streamer IShowSpeed performed, with Post Malone and rapper Swae Lee also taking the stage before kick-off.

By the time the players emerged for the second half, the World Cup final had been stretched into something closer to an entertainment marathon than a straight sporting contest. For FIFA, this was the future: football welded to showbusiness, the interval turned into prime-time property.

For Rooney, it cut across the heartbeat of the night. He wanted the game back. No fireworks, no puppets, no extended drumroll.

Just the football.