Wayne Rooney has revealed that he turned down the chance to speak to Everton about the vacant manager’s position at Goodison Park.

The Toffees have been searching for a new boss since parting company with Rafa Benitez this month and Duncan Ferguson is currently in temporary charge of first-team matters.

Rooney has been among the names linked with the role, but speaking on Friday the Derby County manager revealed that he had turned down the offer of an interview.

„Everton approached my agent and asked me to interview for the job. Turned down. I believe I will be a Premier League manager and am ready for that 100%. But I have a job at Derby, which is important to me,“ he told journalists at his pre-match press conference.

With Rooney out of the running there are three candidates left under consideration. The first of those is Ferguson who 90min understands is very keen to land the job on a permanent basis.

Former Porto boss Vitor Pereira is on the Toffees‘ shortlist too, with owner Farhad Moshiri a particular fan. Pereira took the unprecedented step of talking about his Everton job interview on television recently, revealing that talks were ‚very positive‚.

The final candidate is Frank Lampard but 90min understands that the pool of potential managers could be widened over the coming days.

Everton still have some time before their next game with the Toffees not back in action until Saturday 5 February.

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