THE POWER
Superb servant for his country, 119 caps and 53 goals.. but despite the stats Rooney was no England legend
WAYNE ROONEY has been the finest English player of his generation, a fantastic servant to the cause, selfless and humble, unassuming and unrelenting in his devotion to the national team.
As proud and decent a captain, and bloke incidentally, as you could wish for, a man who became a leader on and off the pitch. A great footballer who deserved every jot of acclaim that came his way with the passing of every watershed moment, and there have been plenty of them, in recent years. He has defied the sceptics who, year after year, were waiting for him to go off the rails, the doubters who suspected he did not have the professional dedication to go with his exceptional talent. The sceptics and the doubters were wrong. Yet, so wondrous were his gifts, it is impossible, albeit bizarre, not to see his landmark-setting international career as far from a complete success. They were certainly not alone but, typically, the Football Association’s official England Twitter account declared Rooney “forever a Three Lions legend”. No, he is not. The England team and those who run it have long had an overinflated opinion of themselves, have long overrated their place in world football’s pecking order. Rooney TITLEhas been IN a GLYPHAvery good player 65in a BOLD succession of very ordinary England teams. That might not fit in with the legend narrative, with the commercially-driven hyperbole, with the Three Lions marketing nonsense – but it is fact. It means there are few of them but like it or not, legends lift trophies. Seminal moments make international legends, Geoff Hurst declaring it all over with his left boot, Bobby Moore pointing the Jules Rimet trophy towards the Wembley sky.
Statistics, even record-breaking statistics, do not make legends.
Rooney’s statistics are the product of his innate ability, his diligence and commitment, of his footballing genius.
But let’s not take an airbrush to his England career, let’s not sugarcoat the bitter pills taken every two years or so. To have amassed so many caps by what is now his retirement age of 31 is a wonderful achievement. His goalscoring mark is a testament to his tireless excellence, particularly in qualifiers and friendlies.
He is an England great but there has to be context for the acclaim.
That context, as mealy-mouthed and inappropriately-timed as it might seem, is that Rooney’s excellence has been illuminated, exaggerated even, by the dearth of world-class, technically supreme, players produced by England over so many years.
Pre-Rooney, Paul Gascoigne was one. There were those doom-mongers who thought Rooney might be the sort of street-footballer, the sort of working-class hero, who might go down Gazza’s path of self-destruction.
Not a chance. His club and international career has been one of stark professionalism, even allowing for the odd bevvy.
After a remarkable debut tournament in 2004, Rooney probably did not live up to our wild hopes but he left everything out there, gave himself every possible chance.
Again, for that, he deserves all the tributes that come his way.
But it has to be remembered Gascoigne, for all his issues, helped England reach the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup and the last four of Euro 96. Didn’t just help, inspired.
Those lands were to become uncharted territories for Rooney.
That was as much to do with the inadequacies of team-mates as with any individual failing.
But, in the final analysis, has he been the gamechanging footballer English football has cried out for on the grandest stages? No. Not any more so, for example, than was the considerably less talented David Beckham, who scored in three successive World Cup Final tournaments. Rooney has one World Cup Finals goal to his name. That Rooney remained, beyond any doubt, England’s talisman despite his tournament struggles was indicative of the consistent brilliance he has shown at club level and the lack of inspiration from others. Of course, on his retirement from international football, Rooney deserves every plaudit. You don’t become England’s record scorer and most-capped outfield player without hard work and fantastic ability. But his announcement is the end of an era, not the anointment of a legend.