Sir Alex Ferguson, who tried to capture his services at the age of 14, eventually got his man, lavishing £25m to take the 18-year-old along the M62.
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Though the Manchester United man has shifted from that No. 9 striker position to more of a No. 10, he has been the heart and soul of the England attack for years and one of the biggest names in worldwide soccer. Rooney, who will remain the skipper under Allardyce, would go past David Beckham in the list of the highest capped England players in history.
England national football team and Manchester United veteran Wayne Rooney has announced that his final campaign with The Three Lions will be the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russian Federation.
The 30-year-old told reporters: “Realistically I won’t have many tournaments beyond Russian Federation 2018, so I’m planning to enjoy these next two years and try and help the team improve”.
“Going into the World Cup – hopefully we qualify! – the time will be right, it will be my 15th season playing for England, and in anyone’s terms it’s a long time, so I just felt the time would be right then”.
“I’m looking forward to getting back on the pitch”.
“Obviously I’ve been selected and I made my mind up before the Euros whether we did well or not that I’d continue so over the last few weeks I’ve had nothing to think about in terms of England”.
6 – Rooney has played in six major tournaments, with England missing Euro 2008.
Worldwide goals the Three Lions skipper has scored. In fact, plenty of England fans will be pretty miffed this morning that he is still hanging around.
Rooney has been a fixture in the Three Lions set-up since 2003 and has played under Sven-Goran Eriksson, Steve McClaren, Fabio Capello, Stuart Pearce and Roy Hodgson.
Along now comes Allardyce, another manager with his own opinions and usually quite strong ones.
“The camp has been good, we have only had one session, but we are all excited about what ideas he can bring to us”, said Rooney, who made his worldwide debut against Australia in 2003 and has scored an English-record 53 goals.
But Rooney stressed he still plans to carry on playing for United after ending his worldwide stint. The managers and players haven’t found out why, but Sam will try to find out why it’s happening.
“Cricket do it, rugby do it, athletics do it”, Allardyce said.
“I’m not that academy player who’s going to pick it up, pass it and be neat and tidy all the time”.
The next two years will inevitably see greater pressure on his place in the team, although he does tend to do well in qualifying campaigns.
“As a player, an experienced player, I know how to manage my body through training”.
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“One of the reasons why I turned down Jamaica because I thought “I’m not too old”, he said. We all want to win and we all want to be successful. “If he plays for Manchester United on a regular basis, he would certainly – if he is breaking into the Manchester United team – be in my squad”. Henrikh Mikhtarian is pushing him hard for that role, just as others are at worldwide level. I started playing professional football when I was 16, and started playing internationals when I was 17.
