Wayne Rooney announced Tuesday that the campaign for the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation will be his last as an England player.
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Rooney says “my mind is made up. Russian Federation will be my last tournament”.
However, the 30-year-old England captain insists he will not play elsewhere once his days at United come to an end.
England will be playing their first group match of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers against Slovakia on Sunday. “I’ve had a fantastic global career so far and played a lot of games and enjoyed every minute but at some point it’s going to come to an end”.
Rooney was the captain under Roy Hodgson as England qualified for Euro 2016 with a 100 per cent record before being knocked out of the tournament against Iceland at the round of 16 stage. “Russian Federation will be my last tournament”. I’ve enjoyed some highs, some lows but I am an immensely proud man.
Rooney also revealed his delight to being allowed to continue his England responsibility and said he never thought about retiring after Euro 2016.
“I feel I’ve got a lot of experience behind me and when I do finish playing I would like to stay in the game at some level”.
Rooney received the symbolically prestigious honour of captaining England on a permanent basis in 2014, taking over the role from Steven Gerrard.
“It’s still two years away and I started playing professional football at 16 and worldwide when I was 17 so it’ll have been 15 years, it’s a lot of years and I think that’ll be the right time to finish”.
“It’s not just about playing, it’s about trying to win and that’s what I’ve tried to do throughout my England career and what I’ll continue to do for the next two years”.
“When I first came and spoke to the gaffer, I said I was very grateful for the opportunity”. “We haven’t really spoken about it. The camp has been good, we have only had one session, but we are all excited about what ideas he can bring to us”.
“It’s the manager’s decision”, added Rooney, who is set to overtake David Beckham by winning a 116th cap in that game.
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“Since then and on holiday and back at Manchester United I have not had much to think about”.
