I thought Wayne Rooney was football's next superstar – it never quite worked out that way

Everton fans like me already knew this. But still, this was England. A step up. International football. The biggest stage. And the kid just smashed it.

Plenty of players past and present make you get out of your seat. Get your blood pumping. But this was different.

Rooney was just 18, and he played that tournament as if he was playing with his mates down the park, without a care in the world. There was a boyish enthusiasm about it that couldn’t help but make you smile.

He had the world at his feet. He would make you laugh out loud at the audacity of the things he was trying, and stare open-mouthed in wonder at the goals and the swagger and the sheer confidence.

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I genuinely thought we were watching football’s next superstar, a player so good he would transform English football and go on to win multiple Ballons d’Or. Had we finally found someone who could end the long wait for silverware?

It never quite worked out that way, and while some would rightly say that going on to become the nation’s record goalscorer was quite an achievement, it still feels for many like 2004 was the best it ever got for Rooney in a Three Lions shirt.

It’s hard to describe the excitement people felt when this kid picked up the ball in space in the middle of the pitch and just charged at the enemy with only one thought in his mind: “I am getting past you, mate, and this is going in.”

Modern football has become awash with strict tactical systems that stifle individuality and force mavericks to conform to a manager’s wishes. But here was Rooney playing like none of that mattered.

Playing with the kind of abandon we all remember growing up with jumpers for goalposts in the school playground. Steven Gerrard watched him in an Everton youth game before he broke through with his wonder goal against Arsenal, and saw that Rooney had “that Scouse swagger”. And it was evident straight away at Euro 2004.

Rooney’s first victim in Portugal was Lilian Thuram. Before the game, Thuram had given an interview saying he didn’t know who Rooney was. He certainly would by the time it was over.

Thuram was about as experienced and well-respected as they come. A World Cup winner in 1998. A Euros winner in 2000. One of the greatest defenders of his generation. But midway through the second half, Rooney made him look like an amateur.

Running to collect a long clearance in his own half near the touchline, he flicked the ball over the bewildered Frenchman’s head, collected it as it came out of the sky, and raced away as if Thuram didn’t exist. There was no catching him, and he won a penalty bursting past Mikaël Silvestre, which David Beckham fluffed.

England were leading at that point and a goal then would surely have killed the game. As it was, Sven-Göran Eriksson took Rooney off and France ended up winning in injury-time. Despite the result, Rooney had made his mark. At one point he even managed to nutmeg Zinedine Zidane.

Rooney’s England teammate Frank Lampard said: “We were all amazed. He came out and showed that he had no fear.” But the genie really came out of the bottle against Switzerland, which had become a must- win game. Rooney became the youngest player ever to score at the Euros with a near-post header from a Michael Owen cross, cartwheeling away to celebrate with his adoring public.

“All of Europe will remember the name now!” said Clive Tyldesley on comms. But Rooney wasn’t done. Picked out by Darius Vassell just inside the box, he had two defenders converging on him quickly. The top corner on the far side seemed to beckon as he shaped to shoot.

Instead, he let rip unexpectedly with a thunderous low shot to the near post which cannoned off the upright and went in off the keeper’s back. It should have been an own goal but even UEFA were getting carried away by this point and gave it to him. The shot didn’t even look on. But England were 2-0 up and added another to seal it.

Four days later, Rooney destroyed Croatia. Ryan Giggs once said: “He’s been called a street footballer and I think people say that because whether he’s on the street or wherever he is, he would still play the same way.” And you could see it in this game.

England were trailing when Rooney took over, playing with the energy and enthusiasm of a schoolboy. He slalomed through to set up Paul Scholes for a shot which was saved, and later set him up with a sensational headed assist, showing the kind of vision and composure a player 10 years older would have been proud of.

Rooney had to stretch to reach a bad pass from Scholes just before half time, but there was only one thing on his mind once he controlled it, and a vicious dipping strike later put his team in front. “It is Wayne’s World,” cried Martin Tyler. And when he played a one-two with Scholes and raced through calmly to beat the keeper one-on-one, it absolutely was. Rooney even gave the poor sap the eyes and sent him the wrong way, and England went on to win 4-2.

Rooney was the talk of the tournament. Eriksson compared him to Pelé. The kid from Croxteth had the world hungry for more. But against the hosts that world would crumble, and with it England’s dreams of finally ending their long wait for silverware.

Halfway through the first half, Rooney got into an innocuous tangle with a defender and though he tried to carry on, was eventually forced to limp off with a fractured metatarsal. Portugal won on penalties, but went on to lose in the final to a decidedly average Greece team who had been 150-1 to triumph before the tournament, sparking much debate about what might have been for England if Rooney hadn’t been injured.

He went on to achieve all sorts of accolades and win a sackful of trophies. But I always felt he could have achieved more. It still feels criminal that Michael Owen has a Ballon d’Or and Rooney does not.

Watching him in Portugal, he convinced you that he would one day be the best player in the world. But I never really felt we saw this Wayne Rooney again.

He became a better player when he went to Manchester United. But some of the joy was lost. And it was never quite as exciting as 2004.

The boy became a man. But it was so much more fun watching the boy.

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