England captain Wayne Rooney is hoping he can go a long way to surpassing England greats Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Charlton’s goalscoring records in this week’s internationals against San Marino and Estonia.
The 28-year-old, who took over the England captaincy following Steven Gerrard’s international retirement after the World Cup, is only three goals behind Greaves and eight goals behind the nation’s all-time leading goal scorer, Charlton, in the charts, with an impressive record of 41 goals in 97 appearances for his country.
The Manchester United skipper could well surpass Greaves in the upcoming European Championship qualifiers with San Marino currently ranked joint-lowest in the FIFA world rankings – along with Bhutan and Estonia – having never qualified for a major tournament.
Rooney claims goalscoring records are at the back of his mind because the team performance and results are the main priority.
He said: “It’s not something going into the game (I’m) thinking: ‘Oh, I’ve got to beat Jimmy Greaves’ record to get close to Bobby Charlton’.
“I’m wanting to do well for the team and if I can score goals then great – the most important thing for us is to perform well and to win the games.”
England are currently top of their Euro 2016 group having defeated Switzerland 2-0 in their first qualifying game and are 1.21 to finish top of Group E.
They take on San Marino on Thursday at Wembley before travelling to Estonia for Sunday night’s match knowing six points will put them in a commanding position.
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