Southgate: Rooney May Return to National Squad

England manager, Gareth Southgate, has said that veteran English footballer, Wayne Rooney, may return to the English national squad following his move to Everton.

Rooney, who is England’s all-time top goal scorer, has not played for the national team since November of last year.

In June of this year, the 31-year-old striker was excluded from the English squad for the 2018 World Cup qualifying match against Scotland as well as a friendly against France.

At the time, Southgate said that Rooney was not on top form, and that other strikers were performing better.

However, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Southgate changed his tune, saying that the door to the national squad is open for Rooney.

“The great thing for Rooney is that he will probably be playing more regular football and so it’s as simple as that…In the league we only have 70 English players, and so we certainly aren’t ruling anybody out [sic],” Southgate said.

Rooney joined Everton earlier this month on a free transfer from Manchester United after being with the Red Devils for 13 years.

His new manager at Everton, Ronald Koeman, has also backed him for a return to the English national squad.

“First of all, if you play really good football and produce great performances for your club it is possible that he will come back to the national team…But it always starts with the club, his performances for the club and then it’s reasonable that he will go back to the national team [sic],” Koeman said.

England’s next match is against Malta in a World Cup qualifier. It remains to be seen whether or not Southgate will include Rooney in the squad.