BURTON-ON-TRENT, United Kingdom – England captain Wayne Rooney announced on Tuesday, August 30 that the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation will be his final tournament as an global footballer.
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England manager Sam Allardyce has confirmed that Wayne Rooney will stay on as England captain.
Rooney said earlier this month that he would make himself available for England through to the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation and would then decide on his worldwide future.
Rooney also revealed his delight to being allowed to continue his England responsibility and said he never thought about retiring after Euro 2016.
“Fifteen years of global football is a lot of years”.
Alan Shearer recently made the bold claim that Rooney ought to retire from worldwide football in the interest of consolidating his Manchester United career.
“The shortage of English players in the Premier League, I think it is only 31 percent”.
England plays Slovakia in its opening World Cup qualifier on Sunday, for what will be Allardyce’s first game in charge. “Russian Federation will be my last tournament”, Rooney said during a press conference at St George’s Park in Burton.
“Hopefully I can end my time with England on a high”, Rooney said.
Rooney’s England-record goal haul.
Having been deployed as a midfielder at Euro 2016, where England were sent packing by minnows Iceland, eyebrows were again raised when Allardyce’s squad to face Slovakia included Rooney’s name among the midfielders.
The in-form West Ham winger has already scored twice this season and was the only uncapped player to be named in new manager Sam Allardyce’s first squad.
“Obviously it is the manager’s decision. I’ve enjoyed every minute”, the Manchester United star said. Come that World Cup, Rooney will be 32.
“Do you pick the best squad to win the World Cup, and if one or two of those are like N’Zonzi, do you do it?” He said: ‘No, seriously” and I was like “Good banter!
“The ability and talent is there”, he said.
“It is just a matter of us doing well in the tournament, we have lost one qualifying game in 14 or 15, we are not far away, we are a small margin away”.
“He’ll want to find out why we keep tripping up”. That’s a departure from the midfield role Rooney played at the Euros – a decision that came after saying that he thinks he should be a midfielder for the remainder of his career – and closer to the forward spot he played for most of the last dozen years.
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“We’ll wait and see, but we are looking at balance of positions”.
