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Wayne Rooney is a legend of English football. The top goalscorer for both his country and their most successful club team, he should go down in history alongside Sir Bobby Charlton as one of the finest players to grace the pitch for the Three Lions.yne Rooney is a legend of English football. The top goalscorer for both his country and their most successful club team, he should go down in history alongside Sir Bobby Charlton as one of the finest players to grace the pitch for the Three Lions.

And yet, on the day of his retirement from international football, he departs with a sense of never having achieved what he promised when emerging on the scene as a precocious teenager at Euro 2004.

Tipped by many to go on and surpass Charlton’s international scoring record with some ease, he did just that. But the fact that only seven of his 53 strikes came in major tournaments – of which only three came after 2004 – says a lot about Rooney’s major failure as an England player. While Cristiano Ronaldo and – to an extent – Lionel Messi have led inferior players to showpiece finals, Rooney has been unable to act as the same catalyst for England when they go in search of palpable success.

Asking Rooney to, like Charlton, guide his country to a World Cup title or even a European Championship was perhaps too much to ask even with the ‘Golden Generation’ of David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and John Terry around him, but the fact he will forever be associated with an era of abject failure will likely haunt him when future generations analyse his overall impact.

His 53rd and final goal for his country came in the loss to Iceland at Euro 2016. If any game could sum up Rooney’s time on the international stage it was that most humiliating last-16 encounter.

It would, of course, be harsh to lay the blame firmly at Rooney’s door. Managers have come and gone, and by either making confusing selections or unnecessarily changing tactics (or in some cases both!) failed to bring about the same success on the big stage that they have previously found in qualifying campaigns.

But as, certainly at times, by far the most talented player available, it is remiss not to believe Rooney could and should have done more to take up the mantle and lead the way on the pitch, even if silverware was beyond the squad as a whole.

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