Wayne Rooney and the Champions League winning Manchester United team of the 00s were big fans of SOCOM on the PSP.
Speaking as part of his new podcast on BBC Sport, the England striker revealed that he and his teammates bonded over the five-versus-five military game while travelling to away matches.
He said:
“It would be me, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick, John O'Shea, [and] Wes Brown. You have to talk, you have to tactically be right, go and revive people when they get killed and it was a massive part of our success – ask any of those players, it was brilliant.”
SOCOM, developed by shuttered studio Zipper Interactive, was an enormous hit on the PS2 in the United States. But it never caught on to quite the same extent in the UK, so it’s surprising to learn Rooney and crew were playing the game on their PSPs.
He continued:
“How you played that game reflected that player, how they play [football]. Michael Carrick was a little sneaky calm one, you would be lying down hiding and you'd hear a little grenade bouncing by where he'd thrown it. I was just all in, straight in, frontline of the trenches, get in there.”
Apparently, Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar – one of the oldest players in the squad – was not as keen on the game, however.
He explained:
“Edwin van der Sar used to get annoyed, because we’re on the team bus and there’s just shouting on the team bus all over the place where you are telling people where you are. Sometimes if they have got one player left, you communicate, so you flank them, go and get them. Van der Sar used to get annoyed and move, he used to try and get as far away from us as possible!”
Since last winning the Premier League in 2013, Manchester United have fallen on hard times, failing to replicate its indomitable success of the 90s and 00s.
While it has won various trophies – including the Europa League and a couple of FA Cups – the squad finished 15th last year in the Premier League, a record low.
Under current coach Ruben Amorim, the team has endured a mixed start to its latest campaign, most notably falling to League Two side Grimsby in the Carabao Cup.
Perhaps owner Jim Ratcliffe should consider shelling out on some PSPs for the current crop of players – it certainly didn’t seem to impede Rooney et al’s performance.