“Rooney currently sits in second place of all-time top scorers of the Premier League with 192 goals scored during his career, despite never won the Premier League Golden Boot.”
Wayne Rooney will always be remembered as a top-class player with loads of experience at club and international level. He is recognized for his energetic and creative style of play with the complex understanding of ball distribution and managing the tempo.
Wayne is undoubtedly a versatile and prolific attacker who will go down in the history books as one of the greatest ever. He is capable of playing on the wings, as a striker, and his primary role — supporting forward. Wayne has also been deployed in several deeper roles in midfield, even as a box-to-box player. The Englishman can strike a ball with high levels of accuracy.
In the 2009/10 campaign, Wayne was three goals behind the Premier League’s most goal scorer, Didier Drogba, with 26 goals. He also nearly got the golden boot in the 2011/12 campaign when he got three goals behind the top scorer, Robin Van Persie, with 30 goals. In the 22 years that the Premier League has existed, the average number of goals scored to win the Golden Boot has been 22. But times have changed, and football is more competitive than ever.
One of the reasons Wayne doesn’t hold a single Golden Boot may be due to the number of injuries he has sustained during his career. Here are all the significant injuries that Rooney has had ever since he began his career in British football:
- 2004/05: Fractured Left Metatarsal
- 2007/09: Fractured Left Metatarsal
- 2007/09: Ankle sprain
- 2009/10: Ligament Damage
- 2012/13: Gash on the right leg
These injuries have affected his pace and agility over the years, hindering him from reaching his full potential.
Another reason for Wayne Rooney’s lack of a Golden Boot is the fact that Rooney’s favored position is the role just behind the striker, a number 10 position. Meaning he does not focus on scoring goals, but more on assisting the main striker as he did magnificently to Cristiano Ronaldo in the 2007/08 campaign.
His combination with Ronaldo was sublime. Rooney’s ability to get the ball to where he wants complimenting well with Ronaldo’s pace and strength, helping the Portuguese win the Golden Boot that campaigns after netting 31 times. Zlatan Ibrahimović even claimed that “Ronaldo took all the credit for Rooney’s work,” telling us how efficiently Rooney works in his preferred position — behind the striker.
Despite Wayne not winning a golden boot after many impressive Everton and Manchester United campaigns, he is still one of the finest players in Premier League history. He showed that with his clinical finishing, he still manages to be the second all-time top goalscorer in Premier League with the number 10 role.