Wayne Rooney, seen here last season in an exhibition match for Manchester United, retired from international football this week for England (photo credit: Brandon Bleek)<\/p><\/div>\n

Wayne Rooney retired from international football this week. Lost amongst the clang and clatter of Neymar-gate, the Hudson River Derby, and UEFA officials cajoling themselves for plucking plastic balls out of a bowl was a rather large and important moment: Wayne Rooney would no longer be suiting up for the England National Team. The last of a generation of footballers who had the promise of lifting the World Cup trophy and bringing England back to their glory days is now gone.<\/p>\n

There seem to be a couple of reasons for this. First, he is still actually playing football for Everton. Those that missed watching Rooney, as a player, can still watch him every weekend lacing up his boots for the Toffees. Had he retired from both international and club football at the same time perhaps the reaction might have been a bit more pronounced. Obviously one’s interests change from country to club but for those of who want to see the occasional cracking goal or one of our rivals taken down it is still nice to see one of the best strikers of generation plying their craft. We can talk later if he chooses at the age of 35 to come play in North America or Asia.<\/p>\n

Second, there were the expectations placed on Rooney and his generation of English footballer. This was supposed to be the generation that brought England back to the forefront of international football. The Premier League, top to bottom, was arguably the most competitive league in the world and it seemed to only make sense that the impressive numbers that he was putting up for club would translate to country.<\/p>\n

They did but not the satisfaction of all. On the surface his numbers look really good. His 53 goals make him the country’s all-time leader in goal scored and is certainly an impressive feat. However, the one solitary goal against France in a friendly in 2015 and the zero goals against the likes of Germany, Italy, and Spain give the impression that his scoring haul is a little skewed. Not all of his goals came against the likes of Andorra, San Marino, and Kazakhstan-he did score twelve goals against the likes of Croatia (4), Denmark (2), Poland (2), and Switzerland (4). But English football tends to view only performances against the bigger sides in Europe and the world, casting aside anything else as being secondary in importance so those individual feats against quality sides aren’t measured on the same scale as the lack of results against more renowned opponents.<\/p>\n