Wayne Rooney's charity testimonial makes Facebook history
Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney faced his old club Everton on Wednesday in a match that made history in more ways than one.
The testimonial held to honor Rooney's tenure with United was the first English soccer match ever to be streamed live on Facebook. That means all 1.7 billion of Facebook's monthly active users were able to watch the game on Rooney's and Manchester United's Facebook pages.
The NWSL was the first league to stream a match live on Facebook earlier this year.
The game, which ended in a goalless draw, was also Jose Mourinho's first home match at Old Trafford, as well as for his three new signings Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly. Paul Pogba also showed up. Okay we made that last part up.
All the proceeds from the match went to the Wayne Rooney Foundation, to be distributed to the striker's four chosen charity partners. Rooney hoped the Facebook live stream will help raise awareness and increase donations.
"I am delighted my testimonial game will be streamed globally, which will hopefully raise awareness and increase donations," Rooney said before the match.
Update: The post has been changed to correctly state it is the first English soccer match to stream on Facebook, not first soccer match.
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