Wayne Rooney Retires From International Football

[Stan 9,052]

One of England's best in his heyday. Became a bit redundancy in past couple of years. 

Many thanks for stamping on Carvalho (?) in the bollocks all those years ago! 

[Steve Bruce Almighty 2,762]

I thought he retired after Euro 2004 

[HK85 267]

Excellent. Taking his return here very serious. 

[RandoEFC 4,265]

Right decision. Nothing left to achieve on the international stage which is actually likely to happen, plenty left to achieve at Everton so obviously delighted the eggs are going in that basket.

[RandoEFC 4,265]

Also love that his statement mentioned that Southgate called him up so nobody can say this has been decided because England don't want him anymore and use it to push the "over the hill" narrative.

[Danny 1,062]

Not overly bothered, he's never been great at tournaments for us really and between the likes of Kane, Vardy, Sturridge and Alli we'll have enough to get through the group stages.

Looking to take his return to Everton seriously which is good for them, he's only 31. He's not been the world class player he once was since Fergy left so maybe they can get a final bit of that form out of him. I imagine silverware with Everton will mean more than with England to him.

[Steve Bruce Almighty 2,762]

If he does well at Everton the media will be begging for him to come back like they were with Shearer.

[Smiley Culture 1,275]

A player who, like his teammates who should take equal blame, has not produced much at tournaments but then again, there's only been one maybe two, I'm being kind I think, tournaments where England have had a decent side and opportunity to progress to the latter stages of the competition. 

Whether his record is devalued because a number of goals are against lesser nations, Rooney has broken the record for goals scored for England and that is an achievement that won't be broken for a long time, I think. 

Though this isn't Rooney's fault, he come through at a time when England had a good nucleus of players and hit his prime when England were on the downward trajectory that they find themselves in now and because he was in his prime and performing for Manchester United at the time, the expectation levels of him went through the roof. 

[Dan 1,297]

It's a strange one really. I just don't know if I can ever view him as an England legend which is a narrative I'm hearing a lot, and for me he never did enough on the big stage to have that kind of description.

Very good striker who can look back on his career with pride, but at the same time, a feeling of lack of fulfillment.

I do feel for him in a way because he's been the key player and the one we've wanted to pull us out of bad situations in some of our worst years, so the expectation on him has always been massive, even more so when you start the way he did in 2004.

Going forward I don't think it's a huge loss and fair play to him for assessing his priorities. England are quite strong in attack at the minute I think, Kane's got potential I think to maybe even beat his record, Vardy's back in form and you're likely to have Defoe & Sturridge playing too.