Rooney eyes World Cup glory

Striker would not swap Man Utd medals

Last updated: 5th December 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Rooney eyes World Cup glory

Rooney: Would not swap United medals

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Wayne Rooney admits winning the World Cup would be an 'unbelievable feeling', but he would never swap his Manchester United medals for anything.

England have been handed a favourable draw for next summer's tournament, having been pitted against USA, Algeria and Slovenia in Group C.

They will go into the tournament as one of the favourites and Rooney concedes it is a lifelong dream to lift the World Cup trophy.

However, the striker also cherishes everything he has won with United and insists nothing could replace those medals.

"Winning those trophies has involved so much hard work from me and my team-mates," Rooney said in The Sun.

"So I would never give them away for anything. But to win a World Cup would be an unbelievable feeling."

Rooney believes England have the quality to go all the way in South Africa, while he feels the presence of Fabio Capello as manager is an extra weapon.

"Anything can happen in a tournament. You could be flying in all of the games then out of the competition in the next," he warned.

"We have to make sure we get it right and go further than in previous years.

Capello praise

"Capello's a great manager. On the training pitch, if he sees anything, instead of carrying on the session, he will stop it.

"He will go over it time and time again until he gets the small details right.

"When you get the small details right, then everything else is right."

Rooney rates USA as England's main group rivals and has singled out Everton keeper Tim Howard as a key player.

"I don't think you can take anyone for granted who has reached the World Cup finals and our opening fixture against the USA will be a test," he said.

"They have lots of World Cup finals experience and their players are playing all over the world. Tim Howard is a top keeper and has fantastic experience from his time at Manchester United and now with Everton."

Frustration

Rooney returned to goalscoring form with a hat-trick in United's 4-1 victory over Portsmouth last weekend, having previously netted just once in eight games.

Assistant manager Mike Phelan admits he could sense the frustration starting to rise in Rooney prior to the Pompey game.

"Yes, he was a bit frustrated," said Phelan. "He sets good targets for himself, targets he wants to hit.

"But he is a great character to have around the football club. His work-rate never wanes and you can count on one hand the number of games he has not played to his best.

"He has tended to go on scoring bursts in the past but whether he is scoring or not, his overall game is always there.

"He works hard for the team and produces moments in games that few other players can do.

"But now he is getting a few goals as well as so we are getting the whole package."