'Wayne' To Be Burnt In Kent

Wayne Rooney is chosen as this year's celebrity villain at Edenbridge fireworks display

Every year the Edenbridge Bonfire Society burn an effigy of a celebrity on bonfire night - and this year Wayne Rooney's been chosen.

Up to 15,000 people are expected to turn out to see the 49 foot creation, which features Wayne with 'Shrek' ears, dressed in a football kit, clutching a Man U holdall full of cash in one hand and his new contract in the other.

The 25-year-old, currently recovering with an ankle injury, threatened to walk out on his club until he won a £200,000 a week pay deal last month, making him Britain's highest paid footballer.

On Saturday, his effigy will be stuffed full of newspaper and fireworks and set alight in front of 10,000 jeering spectators after a torchlit parade.

He will join previous baddies Katie Price, aka Jordan, Saddam Hussein, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, in the Edenbridge effigy hall of infamy.

Organiser Charles Laver said: "This year Rooney was the runaway choice.

"We did think of him earlier in the year when he was in trouble for sleeping with prostitutes again but that all died down.

"As it was getting towards October we were worried that we wouldn't be able to find a suitable baddie, but then he stepped up to the mark with all his wage demand shenanigans.

"The only other contender we had was Mary Bale, the mad cat binning woman, but she only got one vote.

"It's all a bit of fun."

The tradition of burning the "villain of the year", chosen by a local committee, started with Royal love rat James Hewitt in 1996.

TV's queen of mean Anne Robinson, Celebrity Big Brother's pantomime villain and racing pundit John McCririck and Cherie Blair have also gone up in flames.