Rooney, 30, kept hold of the England captaincy as new manager Sam Allardyce named his first squad since replacing Roy Hodgson as boss ahead of the opening 2018 World Cup qualifier in Slovakia on September 4.
Advertisement
Allardyce also declined to name a skipper in his first squad announcement on Sunday night, adding a minor element of intrigue, but the Manchester United forward always looked firm favourite.
“Wayne has been an excellent captain for England and the manner in which he has fulfilled the role made it an easy decision for me to ask him to continue”, said Allardyce, who is preparing for his first game in charge in Slovakia on Sunday.
“My mind is made up …”
Marcus Rashford also missed out, instead selected for the under-21 squad against Norway, even though the 18-year-old striker featured for England at Euro 2016 and scored Manchester United’s injury-time victor against Hull City on Saturday. “I’ve had nothing to think about since then”.
“So, 15 years is a lot of time and I will be 34 by the next tournament and it is time to quit”.
“People say I’m raw, and some people don’t like raw”.
Here, Press Association Sport’s Tom White reviews Rooney’s worldwide career in numbers. “But I can’t think about that until we get there”. Despite being a part of highly fancied teams over the last 13 years, Rooney’s England have never gone past the quarter-finals of any tournament; the side has been notorious for under-performing in major tournaments.
“Come Russia I feel that will be the time for me to say goodbye to worldwide football, my mind is made up”, said Rooney, adding: “I will just try to enjoy myself over the next two years”.
England reached the last 16 at Euro 2016 before being humiliatingly eliminated by minnows Iceland.
Now level with David Beckham on 115 caps, Rooney is likely to surpass the former captain when Allardyce takes charge of his first match in Trnava on Sunday. “We haven’t really spoken about it”.
Allardyce has already said he plans to use Rooney in the “No 10” role that United manager Jose Mourinho has restored him to. It’s just a matter of getting on the training pitch.
“We want to have two players in each position and not leave ourselves short”. “I turned down a call-up to Jamaica because I believe I have the ability to play for England, but Roy Hodgson wasn’t willing to take a risk on me”.
Advertisement
“That team will have to come out to attack us, they’re playing at home, whereas in the Euros, we knew that one point was enough for them”.
