Rooney to quit international football after World Cup

The 30-year-old maade the announcement today when speaking to the media for the first time since being confirmed as Sam Allardyce’s captain for the next two years, explaining why he feels that the time will be right after Russian Federation to hang up his boots.

Rooney said at an England National Team press conference.

Antonio, who was playing in the Isthmian League in 2008-09, scored his second Premier League goal of the season in a 3-1 loss to Manchester City on Sunday and he said maintaining belief has been key in his career. He may want to play through Russian Federation, but he needs to be good enough to make the team or his global career may end even earlier.

Rooney also revealed his delight to being allowed to continue his England responsibility and said he never thought about retiring after Euro 2016.

“Come Russia, I feel that that would be time for me to say goodbye to worldwide football”.

The 30-year-old Rooney led Roy Hodgson’s England side during Euro 2016, which ended with a disappointing last-16 exit to worldwide minnows Iceland.

“So, 15 years is a lot of time and I will be 34 by the next tournament and it is time to quit. So 15 years of global football is a lot of years and, in my eyes, I think that would be the right time to finish”.

England face Slovakia in a 2018 World Cup qualifier on Sunday, where Rooney will become the most capped outfield player in the team’s history if he features as part of Allardyce’s debut at the helm.

Rooney said: “It will be a proud moment”.

“I played on until I was nearly 36 and would not have been able to do that had I played any longer for England”. It’s a huge honour for me. “We’ve walked around saying, ‘What can we do to make more of an impact on the players?'”

But he also knows that, despite -being confirmed as captain, the -debate over whether he deserves to remain in the team will continue, -especially after such a desperately disappointing Euros.

“I’m looking forward to this new regime”.

“Where shall I play him?”

And now he is looking forward to working with the new man at the helm.

“It’s early days in the camp – we’ve only been here a day”. Surely if you’re going to win something and that player is of the calibre to force his way into our national side then you give him an opportunity. It is just a matter of us doing well in a tournament.

Always have belief in yourself and believe that you can achieve things.

“We have to (move on)”.

“It’s an important one for us”. He added, “He’ll want to find out why we keep tripping up”.

‘I feel I’ve got a lot of experience behind me and when I do finish playing I would like to stay in the game at some level. We have bad memories from the last game obviously.

Antonio joined West Ham from Nottingham Forest for £7m in 2015 having played for Reading, Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton since starting his career at non-league Tooting & Mitcham.

“He’s started the season well”.