Their wives may be at war, but Rooney wants Vardy to play for England

Everybody likes a bit of intrigue and wrongdoings, lies and cheating that make up a saucy story. When you throw two famous footballers and their wives into it, you get a juicy mix for the newspapers to devour.

Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy are two women with celebrity status in England. It's mainly because they are married to two former England attackers – Wayne Rooney and Jamie Vardy. They owe their popularity to the fact that their respective husbands have been capturing the imagination of many millions of football fans over the years. But they have also drawn attention to themselves with a high-profile drama that involves leaking stories to tabloids, court cases and public shaming.

And the most surprising thing is that Wayne Rooney's better half Coleen kicked a nationwide craze with a single tweet.

"This has been a burden in my life for a few years now, and finally, I have got to the bottom of it. Over the past five months, I have posted a series of false stories to see if they made their way into the Sun newspaper. And you know what, they did! I have saved and screenshotted the original stories, which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It's Rebekah Vardy's account."

The amount of detective work that went into this investigation is quite impressive, and you have to give it up for Coleen, mother of four, for her methodical effort. Of course, Twitter erupted. The faces of the two women were splashed on the front pages of multiple national newspapers.

Rebekah Vardy subsequently denied the allegations and suggested someone else may have used her account. But the fight turned brutal as celebrities, and members of the public alike started taking sides. And the whole thing ended up in Britain's High Court in late 2020. Rebekah is suing Coleen for the tweet that caused her and her family a lot of abuse and anxiety. The case hasn't been resolved since.

Such are the circumstances between two families that Wayne Rooney's comments published in his column for a British newspaper ring even louder. Writing about Gareth Southgate's England squad for the upcoming EURO 2020 tournament, Rooney expressed his admiration for the Leicester City hitman.

"One man I wish was in Gareth's squad is Jamie Vardy. I would have tried absolutely everything to lure him out of retirement for these finals. I know some people may be surprised at this, especially with the legal case between my wife and Jamie's wife, but this is my honest football opinion. He may be 34, but Jamie is still a brilliant player, who was involved in 24 goals in the Premier League this season and would have been a great asset — not only as an impact sub but as a potential starter."

Thirty-three lions

Jamie decided to go into international retirement. English journalists believe he didn't want to play second fiddle to Spurs' star Harry Kane. However, Wazza thinks that the two men could complement each other on the pitch and propel England to success.

"Look at how Kane has been playing for Tottenham Hotspur, dropping deeper and playing through balls – Jamie could have been running on to them."

Vardy netted 17 Premier League goals this term – his lowest tally in four years – as Leicester narrowly missed out on Champions League football with a fifth-place finish.

The Derby boss and former England captain, who scored 53 goals in 120 appearances for the Three Lions during his career, made a goodwill gesture towards the Vardy family. It could be seen as another layer to the already-thick plot of the Rebekah-Coleen soap opera.

Vardy won't play in the EURO 2020 because he's not even in the provisional squad. But it doesn't mean that private investigations on social media have ended.