Rooney: To be England’s all-time top scorer would be massive

Wayne Rooney is about to enter an illustrious club of centurions, but does not think he can be regarded as an England great until he wins a tournament at international level. Rooney will become just the ninth Three Lions player to reach 100 caps on Saturday, when he leads the team out for their UEFA EURO 2016 qualifier against Slovenia at Wembley, according to FIFA.com.

Of the eight names currently on the list, only Sir Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore have achieved what Rooney has failed to do in his 11-year international career – lifting an international trophy. The Manchester United forward may have five Premier League winner’s medals to his name, but he is yet to win anything with England despite appearing for them in five major tournaments. So while he will be bursting with pride when he receives his 100th cap, there will be a slight sense of disappointment and fulfillment in the back of his mind when he reflects on his England career to date.

“To get 100 caps for England, there’s not many players who have done it, it would be a great achievement,” Rooney said. “I’ll be proud to join that club and it is something that myself and my family would be honored by.

“But I could sit here saying I’ve got 200 caps and 100 goals for my country, but the ultimate is to win a trophy and that’s what we all want to do. That’s why we play football: to win. That’s the target and hopefully sometime soon we can achieve that.”

Rooney is closing in on another series of landmarks. The Manchester United striker has his sights set on Peter Shilton’s record of 125 caps, and he is six goals short of Charlton’s all-time scoring record. To top the record of Charlton, who will present Rooney with a special golden cap before kick-off on Saturday, would be another proud moment for the striker.

But Rooney would still not feel comfortable being compared with the Manchester United and England hero unless he matched Charlton’s achievements in the international arena.

“To be England’s greatest-ever goal scorer would be massive,” Rooney said in the official England-Slovenia match programme. “The record has stood for so many years, there have been plenty of players who haven’t been able to break it.

“I’m still relatively young and believe I can do it, and hopefully that record will come. Obviously I’m not going to be as big a legend as Sir Bobby Charlton – he’s won the World Cup with England – so to eclipse that I’d have to win the World Cup, which would be a massive achievement.”

Given his age, Rooney knows it would take a leap of faith from whoever is in charge of the team in 2018 to select him for the next FIFA World Cup™ in Russia. But given the paucity of forwards in England, and the fact that the Three Lions are almost certain to qualify, there is little doubt about Rooney taking part in EURO 2016 though.

Brazilian hurt, Gerrard admiration

Eleven years on from his substitute appearance in the 3-1 defeat to Australia at Upton Park, Rooney insists he is still as passionate as ever about playing for his country. If anything, his desire has increased because of England’s poor performance at the recent World Cup.

“The thing that I’ve taken away from Brazil is the hurt at getting knocked out – it was hard to take,” the former Everton man said. “But we have to move on.

“I have that hunger to do well, I always want to do well. I don’t feel I have to prove myself to anyone. I’m sure everyone can see I’m passionate about playing for England and as much as anyone I want us to do well.”

Rooney has played for four England managers and ten captains. But one player stands out among them all: Steven Gerrard.

“It’s well-known that the two of us have been close and he’s been a massive help to me,” Rooney said of the 114-times-capped midfielder, who retired from international football after Brazil 2014. “Even when he was captain, I believed that after he was captain I’d get the nod to take over from him, so I watched how he prepared himself, how he prepared for games, how he was around the hotel and in the media. I took a lot from him.”

M.D