Wayne Rooney has 72 England caps
Wayne’s recent form has been fantastic and he could not have had a better start to the new Premier League campaign, maybe this is why in a recent statement from Alex Fergusson he compares Rooney to the legend that is Pele. For me this is a very bold statement, Pele is arguably the world’s greatest player of all time and to compare any football player to the great Brazilian would have to suggest that they are at least coming close to matching Pele’s astonishing performances and statistics.
At the age of just sixteen, both Rooney and Pele made their professional debut’s, Rooney for Everton and Pele for Santos FC. Rooney started his career with a bang, most noticeably scoring a spectacular late winner against Arsenal to break their 30 match unbeaten run just 5 days before his 17th birthday. This goal made him the youngest ever goal scorer in the Premier League at the time, a record that has since been surpassed by both James Vaughan and James Milner. In Rooney’s first competitive season he netted eight times in thirty seven appearances, not bad for a sixteen/seventeen year old in one of the most exciting football leagues in the world, but compare this to Pele’s first competitive football season where he bagged himself thirty six goals in twenty nine matches and all of a sudden it doesn’t look that great at all. Further to this, add the fact that at seventeen years of age Pele became the youngest ever player to win the World Cup leading Brazil to a magnificent victory scoring two goals in the World Cup final.
Rooney’s best season so far was eighth professional season in the Premier League where he scored thirty four goals in forty four games for Manchester United. Pele’s had his best scoring season in only his second season in Sao Paulo State where he scored fifty eight goals in only thirty eight appearances. While Rooney’s career total stands at one hundred and seventy three goals scored in just over nine seasons, it only took Pele four seasons to score one hundred and seventy two goals.
The question which I asked myself after I heard Fergusson’s comparison between the two was this, Is Rooney the best ever striker to grace the English Premier League? I’ll explain my thinking here, if a player is to be compared with one of the world’s greatest players then surely they need to be one of the greatest player’s of their generation themselves.
I have listed some players who have played in the Premier League and their statistics
All goals include domestic and European cup competitions and are only whilst the players were playing in the Premier League. All international goals are from their full career.
Alan Shearer – Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United
Club - 336 Goals in 575 Appearances – Goal per game average = 0.58
Country – 30 Goals in 63 Appearances – Goal per game average = 0.47
Thierry Henry – Arsenal
Club – 226 Goals in 369 Appearances – Goal per game average = 0.61
Country – 51 Goals in 123 Appearances – Goal per game average = 0.41
Michael Owen – Liverpool, Newcastle and Manchester Untied
Club – 202 Goals in 423 Appearances – Goal per game average = 0.47
Country – 40 Goals in 89 Appearances – Goal per game average = 0.44
Wayne Rooney – Everton, Manchester United
Club – 173 Goals in 406 Appearances – Goal per game average = 0.42
Country – 28 Goals in 72 Appearances – Goal per game average = 0.38
Now let’s compare these to Pele’s statistics:
Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pele) – Santos FC, New York Cosmos
Club – 626 Goals in 669 Appearances – Goal per game average = 0.93
Country – 77 Goals in 92 Appearances – Goal per game average = 0.83
It is usually hard to compare International honours between two players as one International team could be so much better than another, but comparing Rooney and Pele’s career is quite easy. Both Brazil in 1956 – 1971 and England in 2003 – 2011 were capable of winning major honours; the difference is the fact that Pele inspired his side to win major tournaments scoring six times in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden and four times in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. In the final of his first World Cup in 1958 against Sweden, in Sweden, Pele scored twice in a 5-2 victory and after the game he passed out on the side of the pitch and had to be attended to by medical staff before coming around, this is how much desire, passion, sweat and tears he put into his game. At the moment I think there are too many players thought more highly of than Rooney, Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are just two names that come to mind. Until Rooney becomes the greatest player of our generation, he can never be compared to the mighty Brazilian that is Pele.
Rory Baker
