I used to feel that Rooney didn’t fulfil the potential of his teens. But I thought about it for a long time & realised I was looking at his career through the lenses of awards (should have been a Ballon d’Or podium guy) and him as a CF.

That’s not how to measure potential, IMO.

At base level, the first questions to ask regarding talented youngsters are;

1. Did he become world class and sustain a world class level through his prime years?

2) Did he become a legend of the sport (club, country or both)?

3) Does he have legacies one can point to?

For Rooney, all the answers are a solid yes.

Rooney sustained a world class level for a decade. He is a legend for club and country & holds the scoring records for both. He’s a PL legend and is top 3 for both goals and assists “in the PL era” (as they say).

He won all trophies at club level, scored in a CL final, carried his team to league titles, was a key player in a CL triumph, delivered many devastating performances against the very best in the sport throughout his career.

He’s a legend in 3 places; club, country, league.

You can’t write Man Utd’s history without Rooney, or England’s history without Rooney or PL history without Rooney.

Even for individual awards, he has PFA/League/FWA awards, he peaked at number 5 on the Ballon d’Or list (and was regularly a nominee).

If you look at Rooney’s career off itself, you’ll realise he 1000% fulfilled his potential.

It’s when you try to put him alongside Ronaldo and Messi because he was in their bracket before they went crazy that you start to doubt it. Guess what? You shouldn’t.

Ronaldo and Messi didn’t deal with being sacrificed for the team or being moved away from their most effective positions for the team. Teams were built around them.

They also had a lot more world class teammates in their prime years compared to Rooney.

Also, both players have emphatically exceeded their potentials. Don’t think anyone expected 50, 60, 70 goals every season from these guys. Or that they would win up to THREE CLs and dominate EVERYBODY for a whole decade, and still be bullying other players in their 30s.

Who expected them to both hit 100 CL goals in their careers? Did anyone even think that was possible?

So holding the fulfilment of Rooney’s potential to the standards of players who emphatically exceeded theirs and burst constantly pushed the limits of possible is a mistake.

You’re talking about guys who exceeded every expectation of themselves to become two of the sport’s greatest ever. That’s not something players just do. What Ronaldo and Messi have done in this era is unicorn shit. You can’t hold others to these standards.