United star has all the tools to be a footballing great

Football FanCast columnist Lewis Doe agrees with Capello that Wayne Rooney could be one of the great icons of the game.

Wayne Rooney has a lot going for him in football. He is at a massive club, he is well respected by his own manager and the England boss, he is still very young and he is quite a good player as well. Fabio Capello has likened Rooney to Raul of Real Madrid and says that he can have a similar impact on world football that the Real Madrid captain has had. 

There is no reason why he shouldn't become an icon of the game by the time he hangs up his football boots. What Rooney does so well that a lot of people do not think to appreciate is the fact that he has the ability to draw in different areas of the game that can be universally respected across the football world. 

He is now the main man at Manchester United, something that has projected him to the front of the club's immediate success and something that could lead him onto the same stage that Cristiano Ronaldo has just left. The fact that there is so much pressure on him at United now that their best player has just left is something that he will thrive on and because his role is now so important when he does play well it will become magnified upon and more and more people will hear about it. 

Rooney tries to keep his head down too. He has not done this in the same vein as Paul Scholes or Ryan Giggs but it is encouraging to see a player who could so often be in the press for all of the wrong reasons not trying to develop an ego. It sets good standards as a role model and means that he is carrying out a lot of the responsibilities that professional players have when they are not on the pitch. 

He is a form of the game that we can all admire. He'll happily admit that he is not the sharpest looking guy around but the appearance of a small, stocky, well-built and aggressive is something that can appeal to fans in all countries that love the game. Something that will be recognised and project him onto the world stage of football. 

He will become one of the world's best and he will retire a legend, no doubt about it.

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