Evan Ferguson equals Wayne Rooney's Premier League milestone, but now wants to surpass it
ANOTHER MILESTONE: Brighton and Hove Albion's Evan Ferguson celebrates scoring the opening goal at the weekend. Photo credit: Steven Paston/PA Wire.
Brighton and Ireland striker Evan Ferguson reached another milestone on Sunday, becoming the first teenager since Wayne Rooney to score ten Premier League goals in a calendar year in the Seagulls’ 1-1 draw against Fulham at the American Express Stadium.
The 19-year-old forward’s low left-foot shot past Bernd Leno after 26 minutes put him in good company alongside England’s all-time top scorer, who hit Premier League nets 11 times for Manchester United in 2005 before turning 20 on October 24.
“Yes, not bad, not bad,” Ferguson said. “Especially as a kid looking up to him and watching Wayne Rooney play, so that’s not bad news.”
Rooney, Ferguson said, had been something of a role model as he attempted to break into Brighton’s first team.
“A little bit, yes. Obviously just seeing the way he was and seeing his documentary now, how young he was and what he did at that age, it shows it’s not impossible, you know what I mean?”
One difference is that Rooney, then 19, was already an established Premier League and international striker at the beginning of 2005, having joined United from Everton for £20m the previous summer.
Ferguson, who was 19 earlier this month, only scored his first Premier League goal on December 31 last year as a substitute at home to Arsenal, and made his first top-flight start four days later, scoring again away to Everton.
He has every chance of beating Rooney’s 2005 total, as Brighton play nine Premier League games over the two remaining months of 2023. “Yes, hopefully,” he said. “I’ll try.”
He might already have surpassed Rooney but for a combination of injury and illness that laid him low soon after his headline-grabbing hat-trick against Newcastle United on September 2. His next goal did not come until Ireland’s 4-0 victory away to Gibraltar on October 5.
“It was very frustrating for me, especially coming off the back of that [hat-trick],” he said. “Having a bit of an injury, then coming back and then having an illness, but there’s not really a lot you can do about it.
“The illness took me out for a little bit and it was just trying to get your feet back and get your lungs going again. I just woke up one morning and didn’t feel great and I had it for a few days, nearly a week or so.
“Playing and scoring against Gibraltar definitely helped, especially playing good minutes over there, I definitely got fitness back. I’m feeling good now.”
That treble that Ferguson scored against Newcastle in Brighton’s 3-1 victory was widely praised by pundits including Alan Shearer.
Ferguson laughs aside any notion of it putting pressure on him to live up to the hype going forward – after all, he had already been described as the future of Irish football by Fifa’s website, no less.
“I think it’s good [praise from Shearer]" he said. “You’d rather be good than bad! So it’s not a bad thing, but it’s all just talk, isn’t it? You can only do what you do on the pitch and they can only comment on what you do on the pitch.
"So whether you do good or bad, I’m sure they’ll say. I think it’s different if it’s Ireland. I think they’re calling out for someone, and I think it happened to end up being me.
“But we’ve got a good team and a young team and we’re only going to get better as a group because we’re young players. Hopefully in a few years we’ll be back to getting into tournaments and qualifying.”
Ferguson also had words of encouragement for another Irish goalscorer, Carrigaline-born Mark O’Mahony. The 18-year-old joined Brighton in January from Cork City and scored his ninth goal of the season for Brighton’s under-21s in a 6-3 Premier League 2 defeat away to Arsenal.
“Yes, he’s a good lad,” Ferguson said. “He’s big, sort of a similar size to me and he likes to score goals. As a striker that’s what you like to do. He’s trained with us a few times. He’s good company, he’s a good lad. He works hard and is very concentrated.
“I know he’s got a good record in the under-21s now so hopefully he kicks on and we see him here [in the first team] soon.”
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