England captain Wayne Rooney desperate to win trophies
England skipper Wayne Rooney says his international career will be tainted if the team continues to fail at tournaments.
The Manchester United striker is understandably in reflective mood this week as he gets set to become just the ninth England player to reach 100 caps on Saturday when he leads the team out for their European Qualifier against Slovenia at Wembley.
Of the eight names currently on the list, only Sir Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore have got their hands on an international trophy, the World Cup on home soil 48 years ago.
Rooney has won five Premier Leagues but is yet to win anything with England in five major tournaments over 11 years and said: "To get 100 caps for England, there's not many players who have done it, would be a great achievement. I'll be proud to join that club and is something that myself and my family would be honoured by.
"But I could sit here saying I've got 200 caps and 100 goals for my country, but the ultimate is to win a trophy and that's what we all want to do.
"That's why we play football, to win. That's the target and hopefully sometime soon we can achieve that."
The 29-year-old has also got his sights set on Peter Shilton's record of 125 caps and is six goals short of the all-time scoring record of Charlton.
Rooney, who will be presented with a special golden cap before kick-off on Saturday by Charlton, added: "To be England's greatest ever goalsscorer would be massive.
Record
"The record has stood for so many years, there have been plenty of players who haven't been able to break it. I'm still relatively young and believe I can do it and hopefully that record will come.
"Obviously I'm not going to be as big a legend as Sir Bobby Charlton - he's won the World Cup with England - so to eclipse that I'd have to win the World Cup, which would be a massive achievement."
Eleven years on from his substitute appearance in the 3-1 defeat by Australia at Upton Park, Rooney insists he is still as passionate as ever about playing for his country and he is particularly fired up to improve on England's poor performance at the World Cup this summer.
"The thing that I've taken away from Brazil is the hurt at getting knocked out - it was hard to take," the former Everton forward said.
"But we have to move on. I have that hunger to do well, I always want to do well. I don't feel I have to prove myself to anyone. I'm sure everyone can see I'm passionate about playing for England and as much as anyone I want us to do well."
Rooney has played for four England managers and 10 captains and he picked out Steven Gerrard as his main source of inspiration.
"It's well known that the two of us have been close and he's been a massive help to me," Rooney said of the 114-cap midfielder who retired from international football after the World Cup.
"Even when he was captain I believed that after he was captain I'd get the nod to take over from him, so I watched how he prepared himself, how he prepared for games, how he was around the hotel and in the media. I took a lot from him."
Meanwhile, former England manager Terry Venables has praised Rooney as he prepares to win his 100th international cap, insisting he ranks among his country’s greatest strikers.
“He has done tremendously well for England,” said Venables.
“He compares with (great England strikers of the past). I saw a list the other day, with the usual suspects there, saying ‘is he as good as this group of people?’
“Well, he’s got 100 caps and that gives him the quality to say he should be in this company.
“He has got to keep it up and he might even do better.”