England

Gary Lineker: 'Wayne Rooney could score 70 for England'

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 09 September 2015

England legend Gary Lineker believes that Wayne Rooney could end up scoring up to 70 goals for his country having surpassed Sir Bobby Charlton's record.

Former England striker Gary Lineker has claimed that Wayne Rooney could go on to score as many as 70 goals for his country, having broken Sir Bobby Charlton's scoring record.

Rooney became the first Englishman to net 50 international goals with a penalty against Switzerland on Tuesday night, surpassing the mark set by Charlton 45 years ago.

However, Lineker, who himself scored 48 goals for England, believes that time is on the 29-year-old's side as he looks to extend his tally even further.

"It's going to be a long time before anyone gets close to Wayne. He's still going so could take it to 60 or 70 if he maintains his fitness," he told BBC Radio 5 live.

"Wayne does not reach 30 years old until next month and there's no-one behind him in the team with any kind of goals tally. You have to play for a long time to score that many goals so his record will be there for at least a decade.

"It's a wonderful achievement for Wayne and he has been pretty consistent in terms of goalscoring since he burst on the scene in spectacular fashion. But he's not just a goalscorer - his all-round game is excellent, he has great spacial awareness and is a very intelligent footballer - so congratulations to him."

Only three European players have ever scored 70 or more international goals - Ferenc Puskas (84), Sandor Kocsis (75) and Miroslav Klose (71).