Wayne Rooney: I'm still a footballer 'from the streets'
England captain Wayne Rooney may be fast closing in on a century of international caps and have his sights firmly set on Sir Bobby Charlton's scoring record, but the Manchester United forward will always remain a street footballer at heart.
Rooney moved to within two of Jimmy Greaves' 44-goal tally with a first-half penalty in the 5-0 Euro 2016 qualifier win over San Marino at Wembley on Wednesday night.
The United forward has certainly come a long way since making his senior bow against Australia at Upton Park in February 2003 when as a 17-year-old he was the youngest full international and also soon became the youngest scorer.
When he leads the team out against Estonia in Tallinn on Sunday afternoon, Rooney will earn his 99th England cap.
Rooney will turn 29 at the end of October, and is confident he still has at least another World Cup qualifying campaign left in him - by which time both Charlton's 49-goal standard and indeed even Peter Shilton's 125 appearance mark could well have been surpassed.
Yet despite all of his achievements and those which still lay ahead, Rooney remains just as comfortable kicking a ball about with friends as he does when in front of thousands of adoring fans at Wembley or Old Trafford.
"I have always believed myself to be from the streets in terms of football. I have always played on the streets with friends, and still do now and again when I get time," said Rooney, who was described as the 'last of the classic street footballers' by David Moyes, his former manager at first Everton and then Manchester United.
"Now and again I go back and see friends where I am from and we have a kick around," Rooney added
"Everywhere we go, we sit there and there is a ball.
"I am obviously not running around, but we stand there and have a kick-around, it is keepy-ups and messing around.
"That is where I learnt to play football. There was a lot of help along the way from the academy, but the majority of my football was learnt on the streets."