Wayne Rooney: England winning Euro 2016 is more important than my 100 caps "When I was about 14 I really stopped enjoying playing football,"" recalled Rooney. Around that age, you start getting told what different things to do on the pitch that I didn't want to do. You're learning tactics. I just wanted to enjoy it. I felt it was too much. I remember going home and telling my dad I didn't want to go anymore. My dad was upset with me over it. I went in to see Colin Harvey [revered former player, manager and then youth coach] and he was a massive help. It was really down to Colin Harvey that I carried on. He sat me down and made me fall back in love with it. He said he'd never seen any player with the talent I had, so I'd be making a mistake. He said he'd always be there to help me. He said: "If you keep working hard, then you'll be in the first team quicker than you think." That's when I really thought: "He used to be Everton manager, so he knows the game." Thankfully I listened to him. "That's when I said to myself: "This is what I want to be doing." I stopped going to boxing and concentrated 100 per cent on football. That's when the progression was rapid for me."" The alternative? I suppose I just have to look at what my friends are doing. Some are doing landscaping, some are builders, so maybe..."" He even would have attempted professional boxing. "I would have tried, yes, but boxing is so difficult to do well in, so I wouldn't have pinned anything on that."" It had to be football. Inspired by Harvey, and selected at 16 by David Moyes for the first team, Rooney's precocity brought a call from Sven-Goran Eriksson for England's friendly with Australia on Feb 12, 2003 at Upton Park. The 17-year-old travelled down with Franny Jeffers and both came on in the second half. It was great with Franny, being from the same area, the same school. We put some coaches on for the school to take all the kids down to watch the game. It was a great moment for Croxteth where we're both from. I used to love watching Franny because his movement was brilliant. Unfortunately the move to Arsenal I don't think really helped him. He struggled to get games and then from there it went downwards. Everton boys: Wayne Rooney and Franny Jeffers went to the same school Rooney's direction was upwards. His first England goal arrived five caps and seven months later in Skopje. His half-volley from Emile Heskey's lay-off was one of his three favourite goals of his 43. The keeper should have saved it. I don't know what he was doing. That was a great moment. He became England's youngest ever scorer, aged 17 and 317 days. Euro 2004 beckoned, a tournament Rooney calls "the high moment" of his 99 caps. "It was such a great experience for me to go there at such a young age and start all the games and score four goals."" Two of his other favourite three goals came in Portugal. The header against Switzerland, the first tournament goal for me, and the goal against Croatia when I played the one-two with Michael Owen and went through. I really enjoyed that goal. Frustration followed in the quarter-final against Portugal when he broke a metatarsal, limped off and England bowed out. Rooney still returned home a feted man, and much coveted, soon signing for United. It was a tough move for me to go from the Liverpool area to Manchester. I was a Scouse lad through and through. It was a difficult call but I felt in terms of my career it was the best thing to join Manchester United, a massive club and arguably the best manager of all time there [Sir Alex Ferguson]. [Cristiano] Ronaldo was there, Darren Fletcher had just come through and they had some good young players. Thankfully it was the right move for me. I've had no regrets about it. The regrets flowed with England. Ronaldo and the red card The first tournament was great, but ended in injury. The other ones have been disappointing. I feel I can do better than I've done. The low point was definitely the red card against Portugal in the quarter-finals [of the 2006 World Cup]."" Wound up by markers in Gelsenkirchen, Rooney stamped on Ricardo Carvalho. Ronaldo pointed out the offence and the referee, Horacio Elizondo, dismissed Rooney. I understood why he [Ronaldo] did it. He was trying to win for Portugal and to be honest I'd probably do the same if it was the other way round. I'd want to win for England. He would want to get Ronaldo sent off? Probably him, I would, yes. I always remember in the first half I was saying to the referee that he was diving, trying to get him a yellow card. That happens in football. Players speak to the referees, which isn't always highlighted. I still believe to this day that if I'd stayed on we'd have won. I was in the dressing room watching the rest of the game. It was so difficult to watch. You start thinking: "Is it my fault that we didn't go through?" That was a tough moment. I didn't show it too much. I tend to keep things like that inside. Seeing red: Wayne Rooney makes his feelings known to Cristiano Ronaldo I spoke to Ronaldo straight after the game. I knew which way the press were going to go in terms of the two of us - that "we'd fallen out." We had to make sure that didn't happen for United's sake. There was never an issue."" After the game, Eriksson pleaded with the media "not to kill" Rooney. The Swede then departed, a sad moment for Rooney. Sven was great. He really trusted in his players and wanted us to play with freedom. It was more difficult under Steve McClaren in terms of the team just not doing well. Under Fabio Capello it was quite a tough time. He was Italian, all the staff were Italian and sometimes it's a bit more difficult to how it is under an English manager. Capello's a fantastic manager but it was always going to be a tough job for him and that showed. During the 2010 World Cup under Capello, Rooney was distracted by issues off the field, notably concerns about his United contract. He snapped back at fans who booed England after a moribund display against Algeria in Cape Town. No matter what people might say, we as a group of players care about playing for England. When things aren't going right on the pitch, it's frustrating because we know we can do better. Sometimes it boils over, the frustration, and that's what happened and it's certainly something I regret. On other occasions off-field tensions have led to on-field mistakes. When things aren't going right for you, you always say to yourself and to your coaches that you're fine. But sometimes, although you feel OK to play, if there's something deep down that's not right, it can affect you."" He believes his best time as a player has been "under Roy [Hodgson] and under Sven," adding: "Those two times I enjoyed. Certainly my time now under Roy. Whether it's your first squad or you're on the verge of your 100th cap, Roy respects everyone in the dressing room. He treats everyone the same. Since the World Cup, Roy's given the players a lot more responsibility and we're all enjoying that. At the minute it's paying off. Everyone's waiting for an England team to go and really take a tournament and do well. Until we shine in a tournament we have to accept there's going to be scrutiny on us. I can't sit here again and say this is definitely going to end our wait for a trophy. All I can say is that I can feel the progression every time we meet up. There are some really exciting players."" The future At 29, he can sense the competition, that some chase his place. I always work hard. I understand the manager has decisions to make. I want to take that decision out of the manager's hands with my own form. I don't want to be plodding along, waiting for a decision to be made."" He is determined to keep being picked. You finish playing football at a young age, so I never want to cut my career short by deciding not to play for England. If I get picked to go to the [2018] World Cup, I'd be more than happy to do that."" He now joins Billy Wright, Charlton, Bobby Moore, Peter Shilton, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard in the century club. It's a special moment for me, but I don't just want to be remembered as one of the players who gets 100 caps or more. You want to be successful. That would mean so much more than getting to 100 caps. He cannot put a mark on his England career so far. "I can't say it's a "three" or an "eight." You just have to look at how successful you've been and we haven't been successful. It hasn't always been great but it's always been a magical moment to play for my country. Being captain of both United and England, there's going to be pressure. But I feel that over the years I've matured as a person and as a footballer and I'm ready for that pressure, ready to deal with it. We've had a tough start at United, but we're getting better and moving in the right direction under Louis van Gaal. With England we've started the campaign well since the World Cup, winning four games. A fifth should arrive today after that emotional start to the evening. My two children will come on the pitch with me. After I'm presented with the cap, they'll go back off. It's such a special moment, so it'll be great to have my two boys there, so we can look back on it. My eldest lad has been asking me for the last year when can he come on the pitch with me. To do it for the first time at Wembley, for my 100th cap, is the perfect moment. Five-year-old Kai begins to understand what his famous father does. He's been great for me actually, because when people come up to me for a picture now, he starts moaning, so the fans don't know what to do. He says: "Not another picture." He's just starting to understand. He's not really that into football, to be honest. Rooney knows where the golden cap is going. I've got a room in my house where I keep shirts and boots and stuff. I'll put it in there with the other things I've collected over the years. The room is bigger than a squash court "split between upstairs and downstairs" with five items most prominently on display. My Premier League medals, something I'm very proud of. They're on a mannequin in a Man United shirt. There's a glass cabinet underneath with all my England caps in. And the future? It would be a big call, at this age, to say I wanted to be England manager one day. I'd just want to get a job somewhere when I finish playing and see how it progresses from there. I'd love to go into management. He would know about adept man-management from Harvey. I do keep in touch with him. He hasn't been too well lately, so I don't think he's going to come to Wembley, but he's coming in two or three weeks" time to Old Trafford to watch a game there." The man who rekindled Rooney's love of the game will be warmly thanked by the player. I love playing football. I love going into training every day. I'm blessed with the career I've been able to have. I hope I can extend that by many more years. There have been tough times on and off the field, but I've always believed this is the perfect thing for me to be doing.""