Wayne Rooney says he won't be considered England great without World Cup

By Matt Gault

Rooney will skipper his country this Saturday against Slovenia on his 100th cap but believes he will never stand alongside Sir Bobby Charlton in the pantheon of greats, even if he surpasses his goalscoring record. 

“To be England’s greatest ever goals scorer would be massive,” said Rooney, who will be presented with a special golden cap by Charlton on Saturday.

“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, but without taking anything for granted I want to keep trying to do my best for the team, make sure I do the best for the team and when I get my chance to score make sure I take those chances.

“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.

“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 also admitted still being affected by the pain of getting knocked out in the group stage of the World Cup in Brazil this year but is ready to move on and start focusing on the Euros and Russia in 2018. 

“The thing that I’ve taken away from Brazil is the hurt at getting knocked out – it was hard to take,” he said in an interview in Saturday’s match-day programme.

“But we have to move on, we know what a good squad we have - it’s a relatively young group. We all believe in each other, we believe in the ability we’ve got and we have to go and prove that as a team.

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

“The highlight for me is that feeling you get after you’ve sung the national anthem. You run off and hear the crowd, particularly in the big games and the tournaments. You hear the support and you know what it means to the fans and the country.

“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.”

England can move to maximum points after four games with a win over Slovenia on Saturday before the international programme breaks until March 2015.

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