Wayne Rooney says he wasn’t best goalscorer despite breaking Man Utd records
Former England and Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney has denied being the best goalscorer, despite breaking the record for most goals at club and international level.
He is England and Manchester United's all-time top scorer.
Rooney bagged 253 goals in all competitions for The Red Devils to become their all-time leading goalscorer in 2017, overtaking Sir Bobby Charlton.
He is also the leading marksman for his national side, netting 53 goals for England between 2003 and 2018.
Speaking to ex-teammate Rio Ferdinand on BT Sports' Between The Lines programme, Rooney mentioned he never concerned himself with breaking records or being the best player on the pitch, he only wanted to win:
"All that mattered to me was winning trophies. I've never been a selfish player.
"I've never worried about breaking records. I've broken the England and Man United records because I had time to do it.
"It wasn't because I was the best number nine or the best goal-scorer. It was because I had the time to do it.
"I've always been about the team, about winning trophies with the team. If individual awards come then I'll take them but they're not the most important thing to me."
But, the individual awards did come and they came in abundance.
As well as winning every competition available to him at club level, Rooney also amassed several solitary awards including PFA Players' Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year, Premier League Player of the Season and England's Player of the Year.
That's quite a haul for a man who isn't too fussed about winning individual awards.
Despite accumulating personal honour after personal honour, Rooney recalls Man United's strength in depth as a key factor in his success:
"If I was struggling I felt a bit isolated in the game, whether that's from out wide, from a striker or a number 10 position, I would always try and occupy a different position to cause the opposition problems." Rooney told BT Sport.
"But we had good rotation. We had (Carlos) Tevez, Louis Saha, (Cristiano) Ronaldo, Ji Sung Park. We interchanged positions a lot and caused teams problems.
"I think it's good that we had that freedom but what we had beyond that is if I ended up in the right wing position, I defended from there."
It was Rooney's selflessness that meant he was a mainstay in United's team ever since his debut in 2004.
His most prolific seasons came during the 2009/2010 and 2011/12 campaigns where he often played up front on his own scoring 34 goals in all competitions.
Despite the impressive goal tally, Rooney himself admits he preferred playing as a second-striker or as a number 10.
When played out of position, the former England and United striker had to alter and develop his game to be more involved in the action, a task he didn't particularly enjoy:
"It took seven or eight years to learn to play there, with my back to goal, it's the hardest position to play. You've got big centre-backs coming through the back of you, you're on your own.
"To play there, the biggest things I had to learn were patience and to play from two-touch. Play the ball out wide, get in the box. I wasn't really enjoying it but I was having my best two years of scoring.
"I remember coming off the pitch, scoring two goals, and thinking 'I didn't play that well today, I didn't really have many touches of the ball."
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