Wayne Rooney gets Gareth Southgate's vote – but who is England's greatest striker of all time?

Wayne Rooney, celebrating his England career by winning his 120th and final cap this evening, is the best striker the country’s head coach has played alongside.

Better than Michael Owen — 89 caps, 40 goals — and even better than Euro 96 hero Alan Shearer, who got 30 goals from his 63 caps.

This turned into a gushing tribute, a love-in like no other as Three Lions boss Southgate trawled through Rooney’s 17- year international career.

He said: “It doesn’t seem right to leave the Lampards, Beckhams, Sheringhams and Shearers out of the list.

“But, for me, Gascoigne, Scholes and Rooney were just able to do that little bit more than all of the others — they were incredible players across that period.

“I played with Wayne at the beginning for him.

“To go on and overtake Sir Bobby Charlton’s record and Gary Lineker’s record is incredible.

“Fabian Delph talked about the different types of finishes and goals.

“For me that would be one of the standout qualities but his game intelligence as well was tops.”

It was a misty-eyed trip down memory lane for Southgate, stretching back to Rooney’s first England start against Turkey at the Stadium of Light in April 2003.

Southgate was on the bench that day, his international career dimming at the grand old age of 32. A rampaging Rooney was only 17.

England’s head coach said: “He came into training and we were like, ‘OK let’s see what you can do’.



Wayne Rooney – His England career broken down

  • England appearances: 119
  • Debut: vs Australia 12 Feb 2003, aged 17 years 111 days
  • International goals: 53 – England’s record goal haul
  • First goal: vs Macedonia 6 September 2003
  • Wins: 71, Draws: 29, Losses: 19
  • Major tournaments: Six
  • World Cup goals: One – vs Uruguay in 2014
  • Red cards: Two – Portugal 2006, Montenegro 2012
  • Caps as captain: 22 games
  • First captaincy: vs Brazil 14 November 2009
  • England managers : Six – Eriksson, McClaren, Capello, Hodgson, Allardyce, Southgate

 

“Few people in the world can appreciate what that feels like — it’s very different to run-of-the-mill players like me who played for England. One of the most difficult decisions I had to take was not picking him for a couple of the camps because he’s been such a great player.

“Just because I didn’t select him because he wasn’t playing well at the time for United doesn’t mean I didn’t have enormous respect for him.

“You have to take tough decisions but I would have loved to be picking Wayne Rooney at 25 or 26 in his prime. What a player we would have been working with.

“If there was a regret, it was selecting him at 31 at a difficult moment for him when he was not playing regularly for his club, rather than at a younger age.”

This week, some of England’s rising young stars have been up close and personal with a legend of the game.


Southgate fired up the PowerPoint projector when they joined up on Monday to remind England’s players of Rooney’s immense pedigree.

An England debut at 17, the 119 caps, the 53 goals, the six major tournaments, the captain’s armband for the first time against Brazil in 2009.

It was designed to stir the emotions, an intoxicating blend of nostalgia and theatre ahead of tonight’s farewell against the USA. Southgate added: “At the start of the week I put on some of the highlights.

“It was not a film, but key things about the age he was when he made his debut, the age he was at his first England goal, six major tournaments, the moment of his 50th goal, that he’s our record goalscorer. We’ve spoken a lot about our former players and the importance of them.

“We actually didn’t have a montage which captured things well enough.


“That’s a shame. A lot of the copyright of the goals are with different people in different places. No one really had a good montage to capture what I wanted.”

Rooney will star in his own film this evening, living the dream once again when he slips on an England shirt for the final time.

The players have been lobbying hard for Southgate to put him on after 53 minutes in recognition of the number of times he scored for England.

It is Southgate’s call now.

This game feels like it has been put on for Rooney, catering to his every whim and leaving nothing to chance.

It is all a bit much, but great for those who get all gooey with this sort of guff.

Southgate added: “Part of the game is to pay tribute to what he’s done. Players always look at how they would like to be treated in that situation.

“There’s no rule book. Who decides? What struck a chord with me was one of the comments, ‘We’ve talked about doing things our own way. We can do things our own way’.”

Without question, Wayne Rooney always did that.

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