Unlike his more illustrious sporting namesake, Martyn Rooney expects to return from his sport's main highlight of the year next week with a title and a gold medal hanging around his neck.
Whilst Wayne Rooney never got going at a World Cup in which England fell dismally short of all expectations, Martyn Rooney travels to Barcelona for the European Athletics Championships confident of a more successful outcome in the men's 400 metres
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"I'm going there to win and anything less than an individual gold medal will constitute a poor championships for me," says the 23-year-old South Londoner. "I can't speak for Wayne Rooney as I've never met him, although I'm sure he'll be disappointed with his World Cup and I'm equally sure he'll bounce back even stronger from the experience. He had his best ever season followed by a bad World Cup. I'm having a great season which I expect to underline with a great European Championships."
This may seem strange coming from a man who failed to make the world final last year in Berlin, but 2009 was a year hit by injury following a remarkable 6th place in the Olympic final the year before.
Both experiences have been absorbed and Rooney believes he has emerged much the better from them.
"Everyone was surprised that I made the Olympic final and then finished 6th but, if I'm honest, I was gutted with the result even though 2008 was my first real season on the international athletics' scene.
"The truth is that when I reached the final I thought "job done." I wasn't even nervous as I lined up on the track. If I'd gone into that race with the same mindset I had in the semi-final then I believe I could have won an Olympic silver medal.
"You don't get many opportunities like that in your career and I blew it. I have vowed to myself that it will never happen again."
Rooney looks better prepared for the European Championships than he did for the World's twelve months ago, having clocked two sub-45 second times already this season.
"It's nice to get two 44[seconds] done and hopefully the Europeans will be run in a quicker time. I felt in Birmingham I was more than capable of running a personal best [44.6]. If you run times like that then you are likely to go on and win."
Rooney, who is currently dating the British woman pole-vaulting champion and Barcelona-bound Kate Dennison, had an immediate chance to rectify his 6th place last year at the World Championships in Berlin, but by then his chances had been seriously diminished.
"I was absolutely flying last season, mainly because I started to learn how to run the 400 metres properly. My tactics were much better, my fitness improving, my speed and stamina were where they should be.
"But I picked up a hamstring injury in April and that knocked me out for six weeks which then affected the rest of the season. I never really recovered. I went to the Berlin world championships still with hope but I'd only raced a couple of times before and when I found myself in lane 8 in the semi, having been in lane 1 in the previous race, I ran like a spanner."
Since then Rooney has had time to analyse his last two, rollercoaster years, and he has come to some useful conclusions.
"I was in the best shape of my life last year but I was trying so hard to make up for what I saw as a disappointing 6th at the Olympics that I pushed myself too hard and my body gave up on me.
"That's another lesson I've had to learn and I have. I'll be going to Barcelona also in the best shape of my life and very confident of winning gold in both the individual 400 metres and also in the relay.
"This time I haven't pushed myself too hard so my body is fine. I won't be a tactical disaster from lane 8 like I was in Berlin, and I certainly won't see it as job done if, or when, I make the European final. My job will not be done until I've got that gold medal hanging around my neck."
Despite showing an unwilling determination to prove a point to the likes of Jeremy Wariner, Rooney is not expecting an easy ride. He will have to earn that gold because in Belgium's Jonathan Borlee, Ireland's David Gillick and even his teammate, Michael Bingham, he faces stiff opposition.
"There are still six guys who are more than capable of winning it. They can all run quick times, so it's going to be very interesting. I know that on my day I've beaten every single one of them. If I turn up and run the right race, then it will be them who will have to worry about me, rather than me worrying about them."
The European Championships have come at the right time for the Croydon Harrier. With a new crop of talent emerging in British quarter-mile running, this would be the perfect platform to announce himself as a major contender in the field for the coming years.
"The Europeans are a great place for me to go and actually win a championship. I haven't won a major championship yet, so to win it would set me up perfectly for the next two years.
"It's something that guys like Roger Black and Iwan Thomas did when they were younger and it really helped with their careers.
"The top guys like Roger, Iwan and Jamie Baulch all ran British records because they were competing against each other regularly on the domestic scene. We're coming into that now, as there's myself, [Michael] Bingham, Chris Clarke and Conrad Williams, a really solid group of lads all pushing each other for quick times. So many people have raised their game and it can only get better."
For now though, the boy from Croydon is hell bent to ensure that one Rooney has a successful sporting summer, and with one opportunity already blown he knows it is now down to him.
Martyn Rooney has been selected for the Aviva GB & NI Team and is at an Aviva funded pre event preparation camp in Portugal. Aviva's support, both at home and abroad, is helping the team prepare to compete at their best. For more details visitaviva.co.uk/athletics.
