Southgate: Rooney remains England captain

"What I've seen and after talking to the coaching staff, Rooney is an outstanding leader of the team. The most important thing at the moment is the leader of the team, and on and off the field, Wayne has shown that he has matured into a leader. He has been really impressive and I have not hesitated to keep him as captain," Southgate said, British media reported.
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Wayne Rooney, Photo: Reuters
Wayne Rooney, Photo: Reuters
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.
Ažurirano: 03.10.2016. 14:19h

England interim coach Gareth Southgate said today that it was a simple decision for him to keep Wayne Rooney as captain of the national team.

Southgate took over the team last Sunday, after the departure of Sam Allardyce and a major scandal surrounding the circumvention of the rules of the Football Association of England.

"What I've seen and after talking to the coaching staff, Rooney is an outstanding leader of the team. The most important thing at the moment is the leader of the team, and on and off the field, Wayne has shown that he has matured into a leader. He has been really impressive and I have not hesitated to keep him as captain," Southgate said, British media reported.

Rooney lost his place in the first team of Manchester United, but the coach of that team, Jose Mourinho, said that despite this, the striker will remain the captain of the club.

Southgate will lead the side in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Malta at Wembley on Saturday and against Slovenia three days later. Also, he will be the coach of the team in the match against Scotland in the qualifiers and the friendly match against Spain.

Southgate stated that he had spoken to former coach Allardyce.

"I excluded myself from any comments and I enjoyed it. Maybe that's the way to progress. It's clear that every team at a high level has to play under pressure. I've worked with most of these players and I know what their potential is. "What happened this summer at the European Championship is a failure only if the players don't learn from it, and that comes with age and experience," Southgate said.

He announced the list of players for the upcoming matches, including Manchester United footballers Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford. He also brought back Arsenal's Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, as well as Stoke's Glenn Johnson.

England started the qualification for the World Cup in Russia with a 1:0 victory against Slovakia and that was Sam Allardyce's only game on the national team bench.

The goalkeepers on the list are: Fraser Foster (Southampton), Joe Hart (Torino) and Tom Heaton (Burnley).

Defenders: Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Phil Jagelka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Stoke), Danny Rose (Tottenham), Chris Smalling (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City) and Kyle Walker ( Tottenham).

Midfielders: Eric Dier (Tottenham), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Mitchell Antonio (West Ham), Jesse Lingard (Manchester United), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Theo Walcott (Arsenal) and Dele Alli (Tottenham).

Forwards: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool) and Jamie Vardy (Leicester).

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