Former England skipper Wayne Rooney believes that his teammates’ ‘concern’ was accountable for the Three Lions’ so-called Golden Technology’s failure to win a serious trophy.
A teenage Rooney burst onto the worldwide scene with England previous to Euro 2004, when he rapidly established himself in Sven-Goran Eriksson’s squad alongside the likes of David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes, Frank Lampard, Michael Owen, John Terry and Sol Campbell.
However this Three Lions facet was typically lower than the sum of its components, with quarter-final exits coming at Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup, earlier than the staff didn’t qualify for Euro 2008.
Rooney has mirrored on his early days with the England set-up, admitting that whereas he revelled in turning out for the Three Lions, he was unsure his teammates felt the identical manner.
“I believe I felt, I used to be simply having fun with it,” he instructed the Keep on with Soccer podcast. “You already know what I used to be like, I’d be within the video games room, I’d be tormenting somebody, someplace – I simply couldn’t watch for the video games. I keep in mind, not simply in Portugal, however then within the World Cup in 2006, I keep in mind after the warm-up and seeing gamers and I might see concern in among the gamers, and I used to be considering, ‘effectively this isn’t good, this’. However I simply preferred to play with the liberty.
“I used to suppose that if I performed effectively, if we win the match, it’s due to me. If we don’t, then I’d nonetheless additionally suppose it’s due to me, as a result of I didn’t carry out in addition to I ought to have. So that’s how I all the time felt like.”
Rooney would go on to earn 120 England caps, a file for an outfielder and ended his worldwide profession because the Three Lions’ file goalscorer with 53 objectives, a mark that Harry Kane has since handed.
Wayne Rooney was talking on the Keep on with Soccer podcast, delivered to you by Sky Bet
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