Wayne Rooney reckons that Phil Foden is England 's "best player" ahead of the World Cup - not Harry Kane.
The Manchester United legend, who remains the Three Lions's all-time top goalscorer, has heaped praise on Man City star Foden, whose place in the starting XI isn't even guaranteed. The 22-year-old playmaker has been in sensational form at club level this season, scoring seven goals and providing three assists in 15 Premier League games for Pep Guardiola 's City.
But with Mason Mount, Raheem Sterling, Bukayo Saka, Jack Grealish, Marcus Rashford and James Maddison all jostling for only two or three positions in support of undroppable striker Kane, Foden could well be left on the bench by manager Gareth Southgate when England begin their campaign against Iran on Monday, November 21 - a decision which Rooney wouldn't agree with.
In his column for The Times, the former Three Lions captain wrote of Foden: "The way he has been performing over the past couple of years shows he is England's best player. He creates chances, he scores goals. He hasn't quite done it for England — what he does for City — but I think he's got everything you need and that technically and ability-wise he's the best player we've got.
"It's great to have Jack Grealish and James Maddison in reserve. Grealish can come in off the left or the right, and come into the No 10 position so Gareth has options on the bench."
Also selecting his XI for the opening game, Rooney explained: "How would Foden operate in my team? With the right winger [Saka] coming inside, I would keep Foden wide on the left side and get him getting at players, committing players one v one and putting crosses into the box, which he's so good at."
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As for Kane, his ex-England teammate still had some kind words, labelling the Tottenham Hotspur talisman as Southgate's "most important" man. "He's the captain, he's the goal scorer and he's the one who is going to make the difference," Rooney affirmed.
"If you look at the players I've put around him, you could get runs in behind from [Jude] Bellingham, Foden and Saka or Sterling. That would allow him to continue playing the way he does at Tottenham Hotspur, almost like Francesco Totti did for Roma : he can drop deep and play passes but also be a threat in the penalty area.
"The creative side of Harry's game has become as important as his scoring and you see some of the passes he's playing, and assists he's getting, for Tottenham — it's a huge development. I did it myself, where you go from being a centre forward to being a No 10 or midfielder."
With 51 goals for the Three Lions, Kane sits just two strikes behind Rooney on the all-time list, and the current D.C. United boss would be pleased to see his record broken in Qatar.
"Do I expect him to break my England goals record at this tournament? Yeah, I hope so," Rooney added. "The sooner the better, really. It would get it off his mind and let him focus on the games."
