“I have had a fantastic worldwide career so far”. “I said before the Euros, I enjoyed playing in this team, and that’s the case still”.
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“To do it more times than an outfield player will be great but it’s about trying to win and that’s what I’ll be trying to do for the next two years”.
“After Russia 2018 World Cup, I feel that will be the time to say goodbye to worldwide football”.
On Rooney’s left shoulder is his “English and proud” tattoo, adorned with St George cross flag, the kind that are ten-a-penny on England away trips and possibly one of those teenage decisions that Rooney might not make, given his time again.
“Fifteen years of global football is a lot of years”. I’ve had nothing to think about since then.
“Come Russia I feel that will be the time to say goodbye to global football”, the forward said during the press conference attended by England football team manager Sam Allardyce.
The player most affected by that positional tweak is Ross Barkley, who was dropped on Sunday by Allardyce in his first squad announcement since replacing Roy Hodgson as England coach. It’s a huge honour for me. “We’ve walked around saying, ‘What can we do to make more of an impact on the players?'” I’m definitely looking forward to it.
But Allardyce told his media conference: “It’s not a reflection of where I’m likely to play him”.
“I have only cried once and I almost cried when I found out I had been called up”, he added. But Rooney, who won his first cap under Sven-Goran Eriksson in February 2003, believes he still has something to offer, playing in the No10 role and as captain.
“It’s early days in the camp – we’ve only been here a day”.
West Ham winger Michail Antonio has pledged to continue playing on instinct after being called into Sam Allardyce’s England squad.
“I don’t say this in the belief that he is no longer good enough for England – he is”. You can’t just forget it (Euro 2016) but it’s a new era for us.
Rooney continued: “It’s always exciting when you get a new manager”. “We have to (move on from previous disappointments)”.
“Maybe sometimes we have to dig one out here and there – let’s be resilient and tough”.
“He’ll want to find out why we keep tripping up. Obviously [I’ve got] bad memories of the last time playing for England, so it will be nice to get back out there playing and hopefully [get] a positive result”.
England new boy Michail Antonio says he is “grateful” for the call-up and now needs to prove he belongs at worldwide level.
He said: “He’s a very good player”.
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Antonio began his career with Tooting & Mitcham, and was loaned out to a series of clubs during his subsequent spell at Reading, before impressing with Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest and now West Ham.
