MANCHESTER, England — The Wayne Rooney who left Everton for Manchester United — the teenage prodigy with the soft voice and the cruiserweight’s build — has every reason to be proud, 13 years later, of the Wayne Rooney who agreed to make the return journey on Sunday.

He has served as captain of United and England. He has scored more goals for both club and country than anyone else in history. He has appeared more often for his nation than any other outfield player. He has won everything he might have aspired to win, with United, at least: five Premier League titles, an F.A. Cup, a Europa League title, a Champions League crown and, in 2008, a World Club Cup.

When Alex Ferguson persuaded Everton to sell him Rooney for 27 million pounds ($34.9 million) in 2004, he believed he had signed the “best young player this country has seen in 30 years.” Rooney can go back to Goodison Park, to the club he supported as a boy and joined at age 9, happy he has delivered on all that raw talent, all that rich promise.

In the days since it became clear that Rooney would leave Old Trafford not for a golden sunset on a distant horizon, in China or in Major League Soccer, but for Everton — where it all began, where it would always end — that is not, though, how he has been presented.