Wayne Rooney has sights set on history with England striker out to take Sir Bobby Charlton's record against San Marino

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England take on San Marino in a Euro 2016 qualifier on Friday evening
Roy Hodgson's side will qualify for the tournament in France with a victory
Wayne Rooney has the chance to become England's record goalscorer
Rooney is one behind Sir Bobby Charlton who netted 49 international goals
Captain says it will be nice to make history and put it to back of his mind

Published: 16:30 EST, 4 September 2015 | Updated: 19:50 EST, 4 September 2015

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Wayne Rooney will win his 106th cap in San Marino on Saturday night, equalling Sir Bobby Charlton, but it is the 1966 World Cup winner’s goal record he wants and the sense of relief it will bring.

One goal for Rooney will match Charlton’s 45-year-old record of 49. Two will send him clear into uncharted territory, ending the wait.

‘It will be nice to finally do it and put it to the back of my mind,’ said Rooney, who grabbed his first international goal 12 years ago tomorrow to become England’s youngest goalscorer during a 2-1 win in Macedonia.

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Wayne Rooney has the chance to become England's leading goalscorer against San Marino on Saturday

The captain is one goal behind Sir Bobby Charlton's long-standing record of 49 international strikes

Rooney, pictured during training on Friday, says it will be nice to get the two goals needed against the minnows

‘I remember the keeper should probably have saved it. A longish ball in to Emile Heskey, he’s nodded it down to me on the edge of the box, and the keeper should have saved it. It’s gone in, luckily…’

Such slices of fortune will be welcome on Saturday. San Marino will pack their defence and smother midfield, but the England captain could not hope for a more porous team to face as he goes in search of history.

‘I speak to Sir Bobby a lot,’ said Rooney. ‘He’s a hero and a legend in what he’s done for United and England. We’ve never spoken about his records but I’m sure if there’s someone he wants to break it, it will be someone who’s played at United for such a long time.’

This will be the fourth time Roy Hodgson’s England have faced San Marino. They have scored 18 goals in the previous three games, without conceding, and Rooney has scored four, including two penalties.

Skipper Rooney faced the media on Friday evening alongside manager Roy Hodgson ahead of qualifier

Rooney, who has had a slow start in the Premier League, hopes to start scoring again for Manchester United

‘Everyone knows we’re expected to win the game,’ said Rooney. ‘It can be quite frustrating when they get everyone behind the ball and there’s no space. We have to find gaps, create chances and win. In the last game, for 35 minutes it was 0-0 at Wembley. Once we get the first, it’ll come.’

At Manchester United, Rooney has lost a little sparkle, labouring up front in an unadventurous style.

His recent England form has been better, albeit against weaker defences. He has five goals in this campaign. Danny Welbeck, missing through injury, has six.

‘As a striker, you want to score goals,’ said Rooney. ‘It’s not happened in the league this season. Up until the Swansea game, we’d had a decent start.

‘Hopefully after these games I’ll start scoring again (for United). Six or seven years ago I’d have been frustrated. Now I know the chances and goals will come.’

The 29-year-old striker would not be drawn on the debate of who is better, himself or Charlton

Rooney is presented with his golden cap by Charlton ahead of making his 100th appearance for England

The debate about who is better, Rooney or Charlton, will rage on, as will the argument about whether the 29-year-old England captain could have achieved more.

Rooney said: ‘As long as my managers and my team-mates understand and respect the job I do for them, the day they turn round and say they don’t is the day it’ll bother me. In terms of what other people think, it doesn’t really concern me.

‘People were saying Messi wasn’t Maradona because he hadn’t won the World Cup. In my mind, Messi is a better player than Maradona. But that’s how football is. It’s about trophies you win.

‘As a team, that’s how you’re judged. Sir Bobby did that. Hopefully there’s still time for me to be successful like that.’

Last month, when he spoke to the England cricket team ahead of the fifth Test at The Oval, Hodgson joked that a few of them might be able to play against San Marino. The joke did not go down well in the world’s oldest republic.

Hodgson recently joked that some of England's cricket team could have played against San Marino

San Marino coach Pierangelo Manzaroli did not take too kindly to Hodgson's barb and demanded respect

‘We are much smaller than England, but we deserve respect like any country,’ said San Marino manager Pierangelo Manzaroli.

‘I think it was a bit too much what he said, too heavy, too strong, a bad thing.

‘I know Roy Hodgson very well, and he’s a very good person and well educated. But when we are in front of this media, with this exposure, you have to be careful about what you say.’

Hodgson is planning to unleash his pace attack on San Marino, with Leicester’s Jamie Vardy starting up front alongside Rooney and Raheem Sterling playing in behind.

Jonjo Shelvey will start his first England game and John Stones will return to the back four after a summer when he was publicly courted by Chelsea but stayed at Everton.Vardy starts after a ticking-off from Dan Ashworth, the FA’s director of elite development, about his conduct following a late-night incident caught on camera in a casino, when he used a racist slur.

Leicester forward Jamie Vardy will start against San Marino to win his second international cap

Hodgson has spoken to Vardy, too, and will trust his direct style to unsettle San Marino’s amateurs.

Victory in Serravalle will confirm England’s place at Euro 2016 with three games to spare. It has been a qualifying campaign devoid of the jubilation generated by Wales, but one free of incident.

England are one of only two teams still boasting a 100 per cent record — the other is Slovakia, who take on Spain on Saturday — but real progress cannot be measured until next summer in France.

With nine months until the start of Euro 2016, Hodgson will begin to experiment. ‘We’d like to win the 10 games and that’s within our grasp,’ said the England boss.

‘But if we do qualify, either against San Marino or Switzerland, then it’s not necessarily the case that I would put the perfect 10 in front of the chance to blood new players against Estonia and Lithuania next month.’