Wayne Rooney: World Cup win would eclipse Sir Bobby Charlton

Wayne Rooney has scored in three of his last four appearances for England

Captain Wayne Rooney says he will never be an England legend like Sir Bobby Charlton unless he wins the World Cup.

Manchester United forward Rooney, 29, needs seven goals to replace Charlton as England's all-time leading scorer.

"Obviously I'm not going to be as big a legend as Sir Bobby Charlton - he's won the World Cup," Rooney writes in the programme for England's Euro 2016 qualifier with Slovenia on Saturday.

"To eclipse that I'd have to win the World Cup."

Rooney, who will be 32 when the World Cup takes place in Russia in 2018, is expected to win his 100th international cap at Wembley on Saturday.

The former Everton striker, who made his England debut aged 17 in 2003, is the country's fourth-top goalscorer with 43.

And he is confident he will surpass the record of 1966 World Cup winner Charlton, who scored 49 goals for his country.

He said: "The record has stood for so many years, there have been plenty of players who haven't been able to break it.

Sir Bobby Charlton scored 49 England goals in 106 England appearances

"I'm still relatively young and believe I can do it.

"I could sit here saying I've got 200 caps and 100 goals for my country.

"But the ultimate is to win a trophy and that's what we all want to do."

Earlier, England manager Roy Hodgson praised Rooney's resolve and mental strength.

In an interview with BBC Radio 5 live, Hodgson said he had been impressed by his captain's commitment.

"He burst on to the scene as the wonder kid. He was the saviour of English football," added Hodgson, who appointed Rooney to succeed Steven Gerrard as skipper in August.

"And he has had to suffer the slings and arrows because of the times when, of course, he has not been able to be the saviour of English football and people have criticised him for it.

"Having built him up to a very high level, they have worked very hard to knock him right back down again.

"I think that has given him an incredible maturity and mental strength that we will need going forward.

"He is a very caring captain. He is very good in making certain that everyone is comfortable and satisfied and that there are no problems within the group. He has taken the captaincy unbelievably seriously."