Ok guys, Rooney broke England's record for all time scorer, there have been reports, news anywhere and so many different opinion regarding if he's the best striker of all time for his country.

He's already a legend. At least for England.

Despite being his fan (used to have his picture on my ava), I have to be honest, Im not really impressed with this record. Dont get me wrong, I know how hard it is to score for national team with strange teammates etc.. (look at Messi and Ronaldo).

**- Lots of goals were against MUCH lesser teams, (San Mario????)

• Against big teams mostly were in Friendliness. :(
• PEN... well a goal is a goal I agree
• Only 1 goal in a world cup.**

Having said that, he scored a lot of important qualification goals. Hat off. And his workrates has always been the highest!!!

To say this bluntly, no Rooney doesn't have the talent or unique traits like Neymar, Bale or even Depay. Nor does he have the thrive to score like Costa, Aguero and Suarez. His case is similar to Mueller.

What Rooney and Mueller have in common than the players mentioned is their Football Mentality. Rooney to be honest is a complete football player when it comes to performance, he can score goals like strikers, drop deep in the midfield and give great passes and crosses and he can defend better than other midfielders and strikers. He can tackle and intercept balls like a defender. I cant say he is one of the best football players in the world nor can I say he isnt.

He is without a doubt one of the greatest english players of all time, and for some the best. But I think we need to wait untill he retires to Judge him.

But he will always be considered as one of the players to show that you can play anywhere on the pitch, and you dont need to whine that you didn't or the coach didnt play you in the right position. Rooney will be considered and English legend and hopefully a global legend!

I disagree on the part that he doesn't have the talent as the mentioned players. He was England's wonder kid back then and has always remain on top class form.

He's no doubt one of the English legend. The highest work-rates outthere.

But, what you are talking about his ability is to me NOT to describe a complete player, it's versatile.

Talking about tactic, sometimes you want to use the player for what he is best at, overuse his versatile sometimes will backfires and ruin your long run tactic. That's what happened to MU the last 3, 4 years... we dont know that what to use him for. He's neither too good to be the main striker, nor creative enough to be core ACM. And if we have to use him as a CDM, yeah let's fire our coach.

He's the most valuable assets though.

I understand your point, but when I say talent, I meant by his strength. Messi and Neymar have dribbling, Bale and Aubameyang have speed, Ronaldo has sheer power, Modric and Iniesta have passing and dribbling.

All these players are the best in what they do. Rooney in the other hand has a bit of everything. That's his main skill. Nevertheless I agree with everything you are clearly saying

Goals are still goals, he wears his national shirt and goes playing in the other part of the planet. He is not the only one to blame in England missperformences in official competitions...

Congrats Rooney for the goal record, loyal and faithful to his nation despite the critics and the bad moments in his career...

I typed out an article for this and my power went out just before I finished, making me lose it all.

...

Quick summary because I'm to lazy to write it again:

Rooney has never even been the best player on his club team.
He was hardly the reason for England's failures.
That being said, they never achieved major success with him there. (Or any success)
He does not jump out of the game at you, even when he's in form.

However despite all that, he works harder than anyone else (see that goal Newcastle scored last year where he sprinted back fifty yards to defend when it was a sure goal anyway) and does produce results in goals. I think England are lucky to have had him - just think about where they'd be without him! Andy Carrol with the injury-riddled Owen and Sturraige. Yikes.

Rooney was absurdly talented as a youngster. He was on the level of Ronaldo and Messi back then. But for some reason, his injuries and weight slowed him down considerably and his playing style changed over the years. He didn't fulfill his potential at all, because he would have otherwise been one of England's Top 3 players in history. He has, however, performed at a high level for most of his career and should be regarded as one of England's top forwards. I do agree with @SunFlash when he says that Rooney, even when he was in form, does not change the game single-handedly (especially not in recent years). But he has still been a very capable and solid player over the years and deserves both United and England's scoring records.

By the way guys, I hope everyone is aware that the top scorers of modern football are usually breaking national team records because of the sheer number of games played. Neymar is 23 years old and has played almost the same number of games for Brazil as the legendary Zico has in his entire career. Neymar breaking Pele's record (which is an inevitability at this rate) does not mean he is better than any of Brazil's current Top 4 scorers. The same goes for Rooney. Charlton's scoring record (identical to Rooney's) is absurd for a central midfielder. I'd say similar things for Rooney when compared to players like Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham, Scholes, and Shearer. They were all better English players than him, but Rooney will always be England's highest scorer even if he hasn't been anywhere near their best player produced.

The best English player ever to grace in the field of football is Duncan Edwards. Hands down. JEOKES, I wasn't alive back then to make such judgements, but I did watch a few highlights of him and he looked like an extremely promising player if it wasn't for the munich disaster (rip). Anyways, I think Rooney is slightly lucky to be considered the "best of all time", but I do agree that his younger years were definitely his best years.

Being the best score doesnt automatically mean you are the best player, i believe Zidane > Henry while Henry is the best French scorer, Maradona > Batistuta, Beckenbauer > Gert Muller...

@Dyn: Im just about to say stuffs regarding number of games played.

@Sun: true! That's why I said he has always been the most hardworking player,

@tiki: yep. The thing is, rationally, his goals are quite against some teams like ... you and me kind of players :D:D:D. but some people on the internet keeps comparing as the best in England history etc... That's why Im curious about how we think about his record