Rooney does it for the love of the game

One of the great arguments in football is the debate about who is the world's greatest current player?

At this time it is widely accepted that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are the two most obvious candidates for this prestigious title.


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However, I think there should be another category. The title of this group would be the world's greatest all-round player and it would contain a membership of one. Wayne Rooney.

This weekend Rooney became a Manchester United centurion scoring his 100th and 101st goals for the Red Devils. This has been achieved in just 213 starts. Not bad for someone who is not considered a natural goal scorer, like an Ian Rush or a Gerd Muller or even a clinical finisher like his teammate, Dimitar Berbatov. This is a player who scores more than goals and that is why he is the world's greatest all-round player.

Is there anyone else in football that has played in as many different positions with as much relish and success as the twenty-four-year-old? In the past three seasons alone he has appeared as a center forward with a partner, lone center forward, inside forward, in-the-hole, wide right, wide left, emergency full-back and if Sir Alex Ferguson would let him, goalkeeper.

You have to ask yourself whether there are other players out there with as much versatility? Are there other players out there with the required mentality to play a multitude of positions? Are there other players out there with the passion to just get on with it and play without questioning the wisdom of the manager? The answer to all these questions is a resounding no! (Not even Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard would play in goal)

And the scary thing is, is that he is nowhere near his peak. Just look at these statistics that encompass his career to date with Everton, Manchester United and England and all you can see is improvement.

Statistics don't tell the real story of this lad from Croxteth, Liverpool though but they do point out, no, actually they scream out that this is a player who is simply growing into the role of a footballer with no peers. They also point out his durability. Other than the broken metatarsal bone just before the World Cup in 2006, Rooney doesn't miss many matches, unlike a number of prima donnas I can mention.

This season Sir Alex Ferguson has stated that he is going to play the Croxteth terror in an advanced attacking role for the entire campaign. The results after five matches have been impressive, especially when you consider the teams he is lining up against no longer have to focus on the likes of Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. In fact I think it's safe to predict that this is the campaign where Rooney will be targeted more than ever by opponents.