England's best soccer player is a lover of poetry, and occasionally recites it in public.

England has seen better days with football soccer. Always a world powerhouse, it rarely powers itself to any worldwide victories.

But its best home-bred player, Wayne Rooney, doesn't take such indignity lightly. Back when he first joined the English national team as a 17-year old, Rooney was inspired to write a poem regarding the love of his country, sharing it with his team. Because when nationalism strikes, it's always best to scribble it down in poetic form.

In case you're wondering, footballers soccer players don't usually jaunt down light verse, and Rooney isn't known for being an academic, poetic sort.

Except no one knows what he wrote about, Why? As the Telegraph in London quotes Rooney's old coach, Dick Bate:

After gaining Bate's permission, Rooney stood up and produced a piece of paper from his pocket. On it he had written a poem about how much he loved playing for his country.

Rooney, along with team-mate James Biggins, recited the poem called When Saturday Comes to a crowd of nearly 30 silent onlookers.

"I think it took most of the group aback," Bate said.

Dressing room convention dictates Bate is not allowed to reveal the full contents of the poem, but it is safe to say there were no rhyming couplets or iambic pentameters involved.

Maybe Rooney took the group aback because he was a master of rhyme and a really skilled gentleman of iambic pentameters. We can never know these things.