Wayne Rooney, an English former association footballer, made his debut for England in a 3–1 defeat to Australia on 13 February 2003.[1] He scored his first international goal later that year, in his sixth appearance for his country, against Macedonia. He retired from international football in November 2018, with a record of 53 goals in 120 international appearances, making him England's second highest scorer behind Harry Kane;[2] he previously surpassed Bobby Charlton's record with a penalty against Switzerland at Wembley Stadium during Euro 2016 qualification.[3]

Rooney's goal against Macedonia made him the youngest goalscorer for England, aged 17 years 317 days, surpassing the record set by Michael Owen who had scored against Morocco in 1998 during the King Hassan II International Cup Tournament.[4][5] It also made Rooney the youngest scorer in qualifying for the European Championships, a record he held until Israel's Ben Sahar scored against Estonia in March 2007.[6] In June 2004, Rooney scored the first of England's three goals in a victory over Switzerland during Euro 2004, and in doing so became the youngest player to score in a European Championship match.[7] It was a brief record: Switzerland's Johan Vonlanthen, three months younger than Rooney, scored four days later.[8]

Rooney never scored an international hat-trick, although he scored twice in a match on ten occasions.[9] He scored more times against San Marino than against any other team, with five goals against them.[9] More than half of Rooney's goals came away from home: he scored 18 at Wembley Stadium and four in Manchester (two each at Old Trafford and the City of Manchester Stadium).[9]

The majority of Rooney's goals came in qualifying matches. He scored 16 in World Cup qualifiers, including nine during the 2010 World Cup qualification round where he finished as the second-equal top scorer, alongside Bosnia and Herzegovina's Edin Džeko and one behind Greece's Theofanis Gekas.[10] Rooney also scored 14 times in European Championship qualifiers. He scored four times in Euro 2004, ending the tournament as the second-equal top scorer alongside the Netherlands' Ruud van Nistelrooy and one behind the Czech Republic's Milan Baroš.[11] He scored only once in the World Cup finals, in a 2–1 loss to Uruguay in 2014.[12] The remainder of Rooney's goals, 16, came in friendlies.[2]

International goals

England score listed first, score column indicates score after each Rooney goal.[9][13]
List of international goals scored by Wayne Rooney
No. Date Venue Cap Opponent Score Result Competition Ref
1 6 September 2003 Gradski Stadium, Skopje, Macedonia 6  Macedonia 1–1 2–1 UEFA Euro 2004 qualification [4]
2 10 September 2003 Old Trafford, Manchester, England 7  Liechtenstein 2–0 2–0 [14]
3 16 November 2003 Old Trafford, Manchester, England 9  Denmark 1–0 2–3 Friendly [15]
4 5 June 2004 City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester, England 13  Iceland 2–0 6–1 [16]
5 3–0
6 17 June 2004 Estádio Cidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal 15   Switzerland 1–0 3–0 UEFA Euro 2004 [7][nb 1]
7 2–0
8 21 June 2004 Estádio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal 16  Croatia 2–1 4–2 [19]
9 3–1
10 17 August 2005 Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, Denmark 24  Denmark 1–3 1–4 Friendly [20]
11 12 November 2005 Stade de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland 28  Argentina 1–1 3–2 [21]
12 15 November 2006 Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam, Netherlands 36  Netherlands 1–0 1–1 [22]
13 13 October 2007 Wembley Stadium, London, England 39  Estonia 2–0 3–0 UEFA Euro 2008 qualification [23]
14 17 October 2007 Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russia 40  Russia 1–0 1–2 [24]
15 10 September 2008 Stadion Maksimir, Zagreb, Croatia 46  Croatia 3–0 4–1 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification [25]
16 11 October 2008 Wembley Stadium, London, England 47  Kazakhstan 3–1 5–1 [26]
17 4–1
18 15 October 2008 Dinamo Stadium, Minsk, Belarus 48  Belarus 2–1 3–1 [27]
19 3–1
20 28 March 2009 Wembley Stadium, London, England 49  Slovakia 2–0 4–0 Friendly [28]
21 4–0
22 6 June 2009 Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan 51  Kazakhstan 3–0 4–0 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification [29]
23 10 June 2009 Wembley Stadium, London, England 52  Andorra 1–0 6–0 [30]
24 3–0
25 9 September 2009 Wembley Stadium, London, England 55  Croatia 5–1 5–1 [31]
26 7 September 2010 St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland 67   Switzerland 1–0 3–1 UEFA Euro 2012 qualification [32]
27 2 September 2011 Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria 71  Bulgaria 2–0 3–0 [33]
28 3–0
29 19 June 2012 Donbas Arena, Donetsk, Ukraine 75  Ukraine 1–0 1–0 UEFA Euro 2012 [34]
30 12 October 2012 Wembley Stadium, London, England 77  San Marino 1–0 5–0 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification [35]
31 3–0
32 17 October 2012 National Stadium, Warsaw, Poland 78  Poland 1–0 1–1 [36]
33 6 February 2013 Wembley Stadium, London, England 79  Brazil 1–0 2–1 Friendly [37]
34 22 March 2013 San Marino Stadium, Serravalle, San Marino 80  San Marino 6–0 8–0 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification [38]
35 26 March 2013 Podgorica City Stadium, Podgorica, Montenegro 81  Montenegro 1–0 1–1 [39]
36 2 June 2013 Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 83  Brazil 2–1 2–2 Friendly [40]
37 11 October 2013 Wembley Stadium, London, England 85  Montenegro 1–0 4–1 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification [41]
38 15 October 2013 Wembley Stadium, London, England 86  Poland 1–0 2–0 [42]
39 4 June 2014 Sun Life Stadium, Miami, United States 91  Ecuador 1–1 2–2 Friendly [43]
40 19 June 2014 Arena Corinthians, São Paulo, Brazil 94  Uruguay 1–1 1–2 2014 FIFA World Cup [12]
41 3 September 2014 Wembley Stadium, London, England 96  Norway 1–0 1–0 Friendly [44]
42 9 October 2014 Wembley Stadium, London, England 98  San Marino 2–0 5–0 UEFA Euro 2016 qualification [45]
43 12 October 2014 A. Le Coq Arena, Tallinn, Estonia 99  Estonia 1–0 1–0 [46]
44 15 November 2014 Wembley Stadium, London, England 100  Slovenia 1–1 3–1 [47]
45 18 November 2014 Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland 101  Scotland 2–0 3–1 Friendly [48]
46 3–1
47 27 March 2015 Wembley Stadium, London, England 102  Lithuania 1–0 4–0 UEFA Euro 2016 qualification [49]
48 14 June 2015 Stožice Stadium, Ljubljana, Slovenia 105  Slovenia 3–2 3–2 [50]
49 5 September 2015 San Marino Stadium, Serravalle, San Marino 106  San Marino 1–0 6–0 [51]
50 8 September 2015 Wembley Stadium, London, England 107   Switzerland 2–0 2–0 [3]
51 17 November 2015 Wembley Stadium, London, England 109  France 2–0 2–0 Friendly [52]
52 27 May 2016 Stadium of Light, Sunderland, England 110  Australia 2–0 2–1 [53]
53 27 June 2016 Stade de Nice, Nice, France 115  Iceland 1–0 1–2 UEFA Euro 2016 [54]

Statistics

Caps and goals by year[55]
Year Caps Goals
2003 9 3
2004 11 6
2005 8 2
2006 8 1
2007 4 2
2008 8 5
2009 9 6
2010 11 1
2011 5 2
2012 5 4
2013 10 6
2014 13 8
2015 8 5
2016 10 2
2017 0 0
2018 1 0
Total 120 53
Caps and goals by competition
Competition Caps Goals
FIFA World Cup 11 1
FIFA World Cup qualification 26 16
UEFA European Championship 10 6
UEFA European Championship qualifying 27 14
Friendlies 46 16
Total 120 53


Goals by opponent[13]
Opponent Goals
 San Marino 5
 Croatia 4
  Switzerland 4
 Iceland 3
 Kazakhstan 3
 Andorra 2
 Belarus 2
 Brazil 2
 Bulgaria 2
 Denmark 2
 Estonia 2
 Montenegro 2
 Poland 2
 Scotland 2
 Slovakia 2
 Slovenia 2
 Argentina 1
 Australia 1
 Ecuador 1
 France 1
 Liechtenstein 1
 Lithuania 1
 Netherlands 1
 North Macedonia 1
 Norway 1
 Russia 1
 Ukraine 1
 Uruguay 1

Notes

  1. UEFA officially attributed the second goal in this match to Rooney, although it was an own goal by the Swiss goalkeeper, Jörg Stiel.[17][18]

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