England and Manchester United star Wayne Rooney scored on the internet.

The goal-starved striker won a legal battle for the right to the website address http://www.waynerooney.com/.

Everton fan Huw Marshall, from Wrexham, registered WayneRooney.com in April 2002, when the striker was just 16. The case had been taken to the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland.

A ruling was made that the domain name must be handed to the Manchester United striker and his management company. A World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) panel said the present owner’s claim he had registered the domain in order to create a fan site was “a difficult story to swallow”.

The WIPO panel was set up in 1999 to allow those who think they have the right to a domain to gain control of it without having to fight costly legal battles or pay large sums to so-called cybersquatters.

Mr. Marshall, an actor who appears in S4C’s Welsh-language drama Tipyn o Stad, registered the domain six months before Rooney’s profile soared after scoring a last minute goal for Everton against Arsenal. The strike made him the Premiership’s youngest goal-scorer at the time.

Mr. Marshall, a lifelong Everton fan, said he had registered the name after seeing Rooney play in April 2002, with the view to setting up an Everton-based website. Rooney subsequently filed a trademark on his name.

In July, Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho successfully defended the right to control the use of his name in website addresses.

Other soccer stars who have recently won rulings against so-called “cybersquatters” include Italian international Francesco Totti, England midfielder Joe Cole and Dutch soccer manager and former player Frank Rijkaard.

The UEFA Champions League action continues Tuesday as Man United host Copenhagen. With the Red Devils sitting top of the Premiership, Ferguson will hope his team can keep up their scoring ways. Get your Champions League odds and lines at Sports Interaction.