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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Entertainment
Dianne Bourne

Wayne Rooney joins 60,000 Ed Sheeran fans at Etihad Stadium spectacular

It was Manchester's super Saturday of massive music gigs, and among those enjoying the stage spectacular of Ed Sheeran at the Etihad Stadium was former Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney and wife Coleen. Wayne is known to be a big fan of Ed's, and was spotted singing and dancing away at the ground of Manchester City on Saturday night.

It was the third of four huge shows at the Etihad Stadium for guitar hero Ed - by the end of the weekend he will have played to 240,000 fans here in Manchester. And on Saturday night it was yet again a huge spectacular for fans, with Ed's biggest hits and a firework finale.

But fans were left starstruck when they spotted footballer Wayne and wife Coleen among the crowds. And that even included one of the supporting artists who opened the show for Ed - Maisie Peters.

Read more : Ed Sheeran starts four night run in Manchester - and he certainly brought the fireworks

For Maisie posted this photo of her and her friends with Wayne, captioning it simply: "no words just this photo". Wayne was beaming for the photo inside the Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.

Maisie then posted videos having to dash back into the arena so as not to miss Ed's stunning performance of Galway Girl. She captioned the videos: "Running to Galway Girl I will not miss it tonight not even for Wayne Rooney."

(Instagram/@MaisiehPeters)

At the Etihad on Saturday night, Wayne and Coleen were joined in their box at the Man City ground by Ed himself. Wayne posted this picture with Ed, captioning it: "Ed Sheeran….class as always. Brilliant concert."

They were also joined in the box by Wayne's former United team-mate Darron Gibson with his wife Danielle. Ed beamed for the photo - wearing his multi-coloured "Manchester" top that he has worn during his run of gigs here in the city.

Footballer turned manager Wayne and guitar icon Ed have become quite the showbiz pals over the years. Wayne famously took Ed to one of Manchester's oldest pubs for a late-night sing-song after his arena show back in 2014, where he was videoed at the time singing along with Ed to his classic Lego House.

The Manchester United captain was caught on camera in in the city's legendary Sir Ralph Abercromby pub singing with Sheeran after attending his gig and tweeting about how brilliant it was. It appeared that Wayne invited Ed down to the Bootle Street boozer where they performed their impromptu bar duet.

The pub were delighted with their starry performers and posted this picture (below) of Ed and Wayne at the time. Since then, the pals were also spotted again having a bit of a karaoke session in New York - belting out Robbie Williams' Angels together.

Ed has a packed schedule on Sunday - for as well as playing his fourth and final Etihad Stadium show to 60,000 fans on Sunday night, Ed is due to play at the Capital Summertime Ball at Wembley Stadium on Sunday afternoon. He will perform on an all-star line-up which also includes Harry Styles in the capital.

It's not known how he will get back to Manchester so speedily, but he IS due to be on stage tonight in Manchester just after 8pm. So we reckon a helicopter might be on call for Mr Sheeran...

(Mark Surridge)

Fans heading to the final show of Ed's epic four night run at the Etihad will be in for a treat. The spectacular live performance sees Ed hold court for two hours creating a wall of sound, while theatrical stage lighting and sets bring the entire stadium to life.

There are also explosions of fireworks at regular intervals, as well as burst of flames around the circular main stage that Ed struts throughout while playing his guitar. He has been playing classics from his back catalogue like The A Team, Photograph and Shape of You, as well as his more recent bangers like Shivers and Bad Habits.

Wayne is not the only celebrity to have been spotted at Ed's Manchester gigs. On the Thursday night opener, Tyson Fury was spotted singing and dancing away to the star's songs.

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