This is an updated version of an article that was originally published on ESPN FC in September 2015.
England's Wayne Rooney retires from international football a history-maker, scoring 53 goals for his country.
His record, reached when he scored against Switzerland at Wembley in 2015, was the culmination of a career that began with such great promise as a teenage prodigy at Everton. Now back at his boyhood club after breaking the all-time Manchester United scoring record last season, Rooney -- who scored his 200th Premier League goal on Monday night -- has hit the ground running with two in two for the Toffees, which led to talk of an England return before he sprung a shock by retiring.
Dreams can come true and playing for @England has been exactly that. Thanks to everyone involved it's been amazing - https://t.co/GfiT7oVCpx
— Wayne Rooney (@WayneRooney) 23 August 2017
He leaves the international scene with an asterisk of disappointment against his name. At 18, he was compared to a young Pele by then-England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson after laying waste to defences at Euro 2004, scoring four goals in four matches as his country reached the quarterfinals, and exited on penalties to hosts Portugal after Rooney had left the field with a fractured metatarsal. It took until 2014, his third visit, to score at a World Cup, a single strike in a 2-1 group-stage defeat to Uruguay in Sao Paulo.
The high watermark of Euro 2004 was never reached again. At the same stage at Euro 2012, he was little but a passenger as England exited to Italy on penalties. He was sent off during Germany 2006, for kicking Portugal's Ricardo Carvalho, before England again exited to Portugal on penalties, again in the quarterfinals. Rooney never managed to get past the last eight in his international career.
Those disappointments mean his contribution for his country is dwarfed by Sir Bobby Charlton's, the creative force behind England's 1966 World Cup winners and Gary Lineker's, who top-scored at Mexico '86 with six goals and was still the leading man for his country with four more at Italia '90, as England reached the semifinals.
Rooney did not become the undisputed legend England expected of its teenage wizard. Cristiano Ronaldo, who became a Manchester United teammate after Euro 2004, once Everton sold Rooney for £28m, has long since surpassed him. By Ronaldo's final season at United, the 2008-09 campaign that brought a third Premier League title in a row and a second consecutive Champions League final, Rooney was a lesser star in Ronaldo's galaxy.
That gap in achievements was not the expected outcome. "Rooney was the better all-round player," said former United teammate Rio Ferdinand in 2014 when reflecting on the pair as Old Trafford teenagers together.
"He was a more mature footballer who could bring the rest of the team into the game and could score and make goals."
Ronaldo, though, had the self-belief to raise himself from tricky winger to heights beyond which only Lionel Messi has climbed, and the Portuguese has sometimes out-performed the Argentinian genius. Rooney has never reached the Ballon d'Or podium and beyond his mid-20s, lost the explosiveness that previously blasted past defenders.
National captaincy, inherited after Steven Gerrard's retirement in 2014, suited Rooney, the armband worn more comfortably than at United.
And the stats speak well of Rooney. The lack of substitutions for much of Charlton's time meant he scored his 49 in 9435 minutes, while Rooney's came in 8201. The majority of Charlton's goals (32 of 49) came in friendly internationals, as opposed to Rooney's 14.
In competitive qualifying matches, Rooney's 30 in 49 dwarfs Charlton's 12 in 19. Meanwhile, both scored at three separate tournament finals, with Rooney's six overall from Euro 2004, Euro 2012 and the 2014 World Cup ahead of Charlton's five from the World Cups of 1962 and 1966 and the 1968 European Championship.
Charlton played on both wings, as an inside-forward and as an attacking midfielder in the 1966 World Cup. Rooney, aside from Roy Hodgson's short-lived attempt to play him on the left in England's opening 2-1 loss to Italy at the 2014 World Cup, has always played as central forward since his first start against Turkey in April 2003. His single World Cup goal from 11 matches pales against the four in 14 that Charlton scored, including two in the 1966 semifinal win over Portugal.
Still, Rooney hit the half-century others failed to reach. Charlton's last goal came in his 101st match, a pre-1970 World Cup qualifier in Colombia. Lineker had the chance to equal Charlton, but missed while attempting a "Panenka" penalty against Brazil at Wembley in 1992. He never got on the scoresheet during England's disastrous Euro '92 as his country finished at the bottom in the group stage.
Rooney strides beyond both and in retirement, he deserves to enjoy his celebration of a historic achievement that future generations must now aspire to.