This works two ways. First, I'm watching through Rooney's eyes all the time thinking, when I was seventeen, did I have that sort of vision, that understanding, that skill in second-guessing the moves of those around me, of making the unexpected, creative move? In football as in life.
I didn't, of course. Barely do even now. And that makes me marvel all the more when I see all that in him. As tonight when he indisputably masterminded England's win v. Liechtenstein.
The second aspect of seeing through Rooney's eyes is knowing that if I follow the game by observing his moves, working out his patterns, I'll learn so much about how winning football works. This young man is a great teacher. Conscious of that I know I'll get inside the game more deeply by closely observing him.
I've always been with Albert Camus who famously said, "All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football." So I'm inclined to feel that if I watch the game through Rooney's eyes then by extension I'll learn a great deal also about how to live humanly, as a team player, creative in interaction, moral, committed, true.