England captain Wayne Rooney may be fast closing in on a century of international caps and have his sights firmly set on Sir Bobby Charlton's scoring record, but the Manchester United forward will always remain a street footballer at heart.
Rooney moved to within two of Jimmy Greaves' 44-goal tally with a first-half penalty in the 5-0 Euro 2016 qualifier win over San Marino at Wembley on Wednesday night.
The United forward has certainly come a long way since making his senior bow against Australia at Upton Park in February 2003 when as a 17-year-old he was the youngest full international and also soon became the youngest scorer.
When he leads the team out against Estonia in Tallinn on Sunday afternoon, Rooney will earn his 99th England cap.
Rooney will turn 29 at the end of October, and he is confident he still has at least another World Cup qualifying campaign left in him -- by which time both Charlton's 49-goal standard and indeed even Peter Shilton's 125 appearance mark could well have been surpassed.
Yet despite all of his achievements and those which still lay ahead, Rooney remains just as comfortable kicking a ball about with friends as he does when in front of thousands of adoring fans at Wembley or Old Trafford.
"I have always believed myself to be from the streets in terms of football. I have always played on the streets with friends, and still do now and again when I get time," said Rooney, who was described as the 'last of the classic street footballers' by David Moyes, his former manager at first Everton and then Manchester United.
"Now and again I go back and see friends where I am from and we have a kick around," Rooney added "Everywhere we go, we sit there and there is a ball. I am obviously not running around, but we stand there and have a kick-around, it is keepy-ups and messing around.
"That is where I learnt to play football. There was a lot of help along the way from the academy, but the majority of my football was learnt on the streets."
Rooney admits it will be a special moment when his century of caps finally comes along, as it did for David Beckham, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole.
"I couldn't even imagine that when I made my first appearance for England. At that age you don't look beyond the next game," said Rooney, whose personal landmark could arrive in the home game with Slovenia on Nov. 15.
"You are lucky and it is a privilege to play for England in the games that I have clocked up, and it is there now, just two more games.
"I have always said that I don't want to stop playing for England after I get 100 caps, I want to get many more after that and try to do my best for the team. I love playing for England and I feel I have many more years playing for England. Unless told otherwise by the coaches I will always be available for selection."
Asked if he thought the all-time appearance record was attainable, Rooney replied: "I believe so. I think it is 16 or 17 games before the Euros start, so I obviously won't be too far away then and then I have at least another two years after that.
"I am happy if they all fit in -- there is no reason to think about stop playing."