Breaking Charlton’s England record looking like a shoo-in for Rooney
Published:Bobby Charlton, Jimmy Greaves and Michael Owen are all previous examples of players that realistically should have been the first to break the magic 50-goal barrier for England, having all scored their first goals for their country before their 21st birthday.
Bearing in mind that nations with far lesser footballing pedigrees than England are able to find a scorer of more than 50 international goals, it is somewhat of a surprise that Charlton leads the England charts with 49.
The likes of Guatemala, Singapore, Zambia and Hondurus can reminisce over a striker to have surpassed the 50-goal milestone, while Denmark, Japan and Iran are among the nations to have more than one player in this exclusive club.
It is 4/5 that Wayne Rooney breaks Charlton’s record and becomes the first to 50 England goals and this seems a more worthwhile bet than the 1/2 offered that the 27-year-old betters Gary Lineker’s tally of 48 goals, which is obviously only one less than Charlton.
Seven goals in his last six qualifiers have been a big help to Rooney climbing the scoring ladder and he is the first player to top score for England in two different World Cup qualifying campaigns.
The big question now is … can he score a first ever goal at a World Cup finals?
Despite his previous record without a goal, the Manchester United striker is 5/2 to score the most England goals at the 2014 World Cup and 25/1 to end the tournament as its overall top scorer.
Alternatively, it is 7/2 that Daniel Sturridge tops the England scoring ranks in Rio, with Danny Welbeck 8/1 and Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard among the group of players priced at 10/1.
England’s price has also shortened in the World Cup odds a a result of their confirmed qualification, being cut from 25/1 to 22/1.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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