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Wayne Rooney could feature in Everton-themed Angry Birds game
Wayne Rooney could feature in an Everton-themed version of the popular online game Angry Birds as part of the club's new shirt-sleeve sponsorship deal with the game's developers.
Premier League clubs are permitted to carry sponsors on the sleeves of their kits for the first time this season, and Everton have teamed up with gaming giant Rovio.
Certain sections of the Everton fanbase were angered due to the game's main character being a red bird - the colour of Merseyside rivals Liverpool. However, the club have been privately congratulated for securing such a deal in Premier League boardrooms across the country.
Everton fans famously took to social media to object to manager Ronald Koeman's choice of festive decorations after he tweeted a picture of his Christmas tree covered in red.
The deal is the latest in a series of Everton contracts which have raised between £80million to £90million in revenue over the last two years, which is significant despite the unprecedented influx of television money.
"We have a history of doing Angry Bird homages of real-life characters so obviously now we are in collaboration (with Everton) we can work together to bring interesting characters and profiles into the games," said Ville Heijari, Rovio Entertainment's chief marketing officer.
"Potentially Wayne Rooney would be involved.
"It is not just enough that we reach mobile players; we want to reach sports fans, television spectators, so it is a big audience we are going after."
"For us this is a real plus in that we have been able to secure a brand of the level of Rovio with the level of brand awareness they have and the undoubted market-leading following they have," said Everton's head of commercial Alan McTavish.
"It (shirt sleeve sponsorship) has been a really competitive marketplace and there have been deals done across the league at different levels but we are confident we have done the best of them all."