A FINE ENGLAND CAREER, YET GOALS CAME WITHOUT TROPHIES

THERE is absolutely no debate Wayne Rooney’s goal record makes him one of England’s greatest players but, from all those 53 strikes, there is still quite a telling debate about his entire international career. What actually was his greatest moment in an English jersey?

It is rather ironic, and reflects something significant about that career, it probably wasn’t any of those goals at all. It was something else. It was something from one of his earliest England games, at Euro 2004 when the very sight of him tearing so ferociously up the pitch seemed to cause utter panic and chaos in the French defence. It was as if, through sheer explosive power, he was making one of the most experienced backlines in the world forget everything they knew about the game.

It was not just about the moment, either. It was about what seemed possible for every moment after that. That a mere 18-yearold was already doing this, and everyone knew about his developing talent, couldn’t but fire the imagination; couldn’t but inspire optimism.

As to whether he lived up to that potential? Many will say becoming your country’s top goalscorer should end any such debate, but Rooney probably said it himself in his retirement statement. “One of my very few regrets is not to have been part of a successful England tournament side.” You could extend to say that, beyond 2004, he never really had a successful tournament for England either.

This is by no means to blame or criticise Rooney, but is rather a lament for what might have been, because of the somewhat fickle nature of football. You could even argue that, given his obvious talent and general productivity for England, he is the unluckiest victim of the fact tournaments are mere vignettes in the sport.

A player’s career has to effectively be timed to be on top form for four weeks of a year, something increasingly difficult in the clubdriven modern game.

It also brings the issue to a relatively trivial exercise, but telling example. If you were to pick an alltime England XI, or even attempt to lay out the country’s greatest, would Rooney’s goals really elevate him ahead of Gary Lineker’s golden boot in 1986, Alan Shearer’s in Euro 96, or Geoff Hurst’s World Cup winning hat-trick? – The Independent