Former Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney has said that there have been better number nines in football than him, adding that he is not a 'natural goalscorer'.
England and Manchester United's record-breaking goalscorer Wayne Rooney has revealed that he was never a "natural" finisher.
Rooney scored 253 goals to break Sir Bobby Charlton's all-time record at United, before surpassing the latter's England tally with 53.
Writing in his Sunday Times column, the 34-year-old said as quoted by BBC: "This might surprise you, but I'm not a natural goalscorer. I was never a Gary Lineker or a Ruud van Nistelrooy."
Rooney, since moving to Manchester United in 2004, made 559 appearances. He also won 120 caps for England.
"I hold the goal records for Manchester United and England and I'm very proud about that - yet there have been better number nines than me," he added.
"I played for United for 13 years, England for 15 years. I had time to break those records - and looking back I should have scored more."
Rooney also said recently that his lowest point came in the 2006 World Cup quarter-final game against Portugal, where he was sent off.
Rooney was given the marching orders after then Manchester United teammate and superstar Cristiano Ronaldo played a role in the dismissal, with the Portuguese caught winking after his Old Trafford colleague was dismissed for a second-half stamp.
"There was a clear foul, the former Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho was pulling and pushing me and Petit came in from the other side," Rooney wrote in his column for The Times as quoted by Goal.
"Referee Horacio Elizondo did nothing and I planted my foot down on Carvalho -- in one of those moments when you're not thinking. I knew it was a red card and back in the dressing room I watched the rest of the game on a little TV, thinking: 'If we win this, I'm suspended for a World Cup semi-final and final and if we lose it's my fault.' It was the worst, weirdest feeling I've had in football. I had my phone in my hand and I was getting all these messages about Ronaldo. Of course, when he ran over to ask Elizondo to send me off I pushed him away. In that moment I couldn't believe what he was doing. But sitting in that dressing room gave me time to calm down and think," he wrote.
