British soccer legend Wayne Rooney reveals Jewish ancestry

Former British soccer star Wayne Rooney has revealed that he recently discovered he has Jewish ancestry through his maternal grandmother’s family, who came to Britain from Poland.

Rooney, 40, discusses the discovery in an episode of the Disney+ series “The Real Rooneys,” aired Thursday, during a family visit to Auschwitz with his wife Coleen and their sons Kit and Cass.

“I recently found out my mum’s mum, me nan, her family was Polish Jews,” Rooney said. “I’m Catholic but I’ve always asked questions like, ‘Why aren’t we Jewish?'”

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When a producer told Rooney that having maternal Jewish lineage makes him Jewish under traditional Jewish law, the former Manchester United and England star striker joked about a potential spinoff titled “Roo the Jew.”

Rooney said he learned of his family history after telling his mother, Jeanette, about plans to visit Auschwitz. She told him that his great-grandmother, believed to have had the surname Greenburg, had fled Poland for Liverpool. Rooney said it was the first time he had heard the story.

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The family made the trip last year as part of a World War II school project by one of his sons. Rooney, who had previously visited Auschwitz during the 2012 European Championship in Poland, reflected on the Holocaust during the visit.

“You just wouldn’t think human beings could do that to other human beings,” he said, adding that people sometimes forget “what happened before our time and what people done for us to be able to enjoy the privileges we have now.”

Rooney was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools in Liverpool. In a 2004 interview with The Sun, he said that had he not become a soccer player, he might have considered becoming a priest because of his interest in religious education.

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