England's 5 greatest footballers of all time

#3 Wayne Rooney

Wayne Rooney

The greatest British striker of all time, Wayne Rooney was very untimely touted as “the White Pele” by a section of British media after his brilliant debut in 2004 in the European Championships. To his credit, he was not weighed down by that epithet and went on to do enough to ensure a place for himself in English football’s Hall of Fame.

Rooney was very strong physically and had superb ball-skills too. He also had a very decent shot and header on him. He played for England in 3 World Cups and 3 European Championships, but never quite fulfilled the promise he had aroused by his amazing performance in 2004. Still, he went on to score 53 goals in 120 matches for England and remains their highest goal-scorer of all time.

He also had a very successful club career and ended up as the highest goal-scorer for Manchester United, no less. He was signed from Everton as a talented 18-year-old and spent 13 seasons there. He scored 293 goals in 696 matches in his club career and replaced Bobby Charlton as United’s highest goal-scorer. Rooney won the PFA Player of the Year once, apart from winning 5 Premier League titles and a UEFA Champions League title for United.