Rooney has equaled Gary Lineker´s goal scoring recored (& own goals v England) today in the 3-2 win v Slovenia. He´ll pass Sir Bobby Charlton´s recored of 49 with that there is no doubt. Anyone remember Sir BC as a player ? Rooneys on a par with him. If he scores 2 more in the next 3 games he´ll surpass him. Jimmy Greaves 1st & then our Gaz are still my top England scores. Thoughts
How many games did Lineker play to get 48 goals compared to Rooney? Just wondering as Lineker scored a WC hat trick, got a golden boot and played in a semi at least!
... Bobby Charlton was a legend for both club and country... Wayne, whilst good by recent England standards, is not,IMHO, in the same league ... Bobby scored some excellent goals in matches of huge importance for his country ... his total is not disproportionately supplemented by scores against the likes of Andorra and Legoland...
Charlton scored his in 106 matches (4 hat tricks), Lineker in 80 matches(5 hat tricks). Today was Rooney's 104th match.
Top 5 goal scorers only. Greaves 44/57- 0.7 Lineker 48/80- 0.6 Charlton 49/106- 0.46 Owen 40/89- 0.44 Rooney 48/104- 0.41 That´s how I see it with goals per game ratio. To many people forget Greaves´s contribution to the England team. Best striker of all time imo. It´s hard to say though when you take into account the time in which they played & how the game has changed. Still, it´s all about opinions.
Most of Rooney's goal have come in friendlies and against small nations in qualifiers Apart from Euro 2004 he has never turned up for a tournament
34 of Rooney's goals were in competitive matches (tournaments/qualifiers). 34 of Bobby Charlton's goals were also in competitive matches - although that drops down to 7 if you don't count the British Home Championship which were glorified friendlies imo. If I was a betting man, I'd put a couple on him being bother the highest scorer and have the highest number of caps for England - didn't realise but he is on 105.
Of recent generations I think Michael Owen was the best striker England have had. Along with Beckham he carried a very poor England team along
Seamen, Adams, Campbell, Ferdinand, Cole, Scholes, Shearer, Sherringham, Hargreaves, McManaman, Neville, Gerrard, we actually had some decent players back then, it was a stronger squad than we've got now. Though it was probably between the World Cup 90 and Euro 96 that we played the best football, at least in recent times. It was so much better supporting England back then.
