Hours after flying into the country to announce a sensational return to English football by signing for Derby, Wayne Rooney said his appetite for success remains as intense as ever. “I’m delighted to be back and to try to help the team go forward and hopefully push for promotion,” said the 33-year-old. “It’s football, it’s been my whole life, it’s what I love.”

England’s record goalscorer has agreed an 18-month contract with the Championship side, with the option of another year. He will start in J-anuary after completing the MLS season with DC United. His role at Pride Park will involve coaching as well as playing but he is adamant the emphasis will be on the latter, being careful to spell out that, although he has ambitions to manage one day, here he will be a pupil of the manager, Phillip Cocu, and not a threat.

“I feel I have a lot of quality I can bring to the squad so, first and foremost, I want to play and help the team,” said Rooney as he sat beside Cocu.

Rooney said he would not have joined Derby if the manager was troubled by his arrival. “I spoke to Phillip on the phone to see the situation with him, it was important to speak to him,” he said. “After that call I decided to come. There were other options; clubs made offers and inquiries about me. But once I made the decision to come here, I was wasn’t going to go back [on it].”

Cocu, who oversaw a victory at Huddersfield on Monday in his first match in charge, professed to being excited by the recruitment coup. “He’s a star player with extreme quality,” said the Dutchman.

“A great player and also experienced – this is something the whole team will benefit from. We set goals and are lucky to have him help us achieve those goals. He can be a great influence when he joins in January on and off the pitch. [Promotion] -decisions will be made in March and April so we must be in a good position at that moment.”

Rooney added: “Derby is a club with great ambitions. They’ve put a lot of money into the squad over the years and I felt my experience could help them take that next step.”

Rooney will be paid around £90,000 per week and will wear a shirt bearing 32, the same number that appears in the name of the online betting casino that signed a record sponsorship contract with Derby this month. “The number is no big deal,” said Rooney when asked about its significance.

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Rooney is stepping up his pursuit of his coaching qualifications and revealed that an instructor from the Football Association will fly to the United States next week to oversee his progress. “I started doing my coaching badges a few years ago, but through my children I couldn’t always find time to fit them in,” he said. “The FA are flying out next Monday to continue them, and when I’m back in England I’ll have more time to fulfil the requirements. Your badges are obviously important, every coach needs to go through that process. Even during the coaching badges you can learn new things.”

Rooney said he has been thinking about moving into management for at least five years and started gaining hands-on experience while at Old Trafford. “When Louis van Gaal was manager at Manchester United, Ryan Giggs was analysing the opponents and I used to go in there a lot for a few hours after training. Then at Everton I’d speak to the coaches.

“I’ve always been interested in it. At DC I speak to the coaches a lot about how we’re going to prepare the game and set up. It’s something which, when you’re interested and have an open mind, you always speak to your teammates or coaches about it.”

He said the manager with whom he spent most of his playing career made the comment that made the deepest impression on him. “There’s a lot of things that stick with you from managers but I remember Alex Ferguson saying: ‘The hardest thing to do in life is to work hard.’ That’s true, no matter what you do. Whether it’s football or a job in an office, the most difficult thing is to stay motivated and work hard. If you can do that, it’s a great quality to have.”

He has no doubt he has that quality. “That comes from where you grow up and how you’re brought up. It was instilled in me as a child.”

As for what type of manager he envisages himself becoming, he was not about to make any grand claims. “That’s in the future. We all want to be like the great managers.”

His next main influence will be Cocu, a distinguished former player who has forged a fine career as a manager, including three Dutch league titles. He said he is familiar with the process Rooney is set to go through.

“In my own [playing] career, when I came back from Barcelona to PSV, my coach at PSV, Guus Hiddink, gave me more insight into what managing and coaching is about,” Cocu said. “It was very helpful and even in my first years in the job [of manager] I was still in contact with him.

“I am sure that not only myself but also our staff can help [Rooney] in this period, to show him how we think about football, how we approach the games, how we prepare training sessions and plan development for young players. A lot of aspects of the coaching we can show him.”