Stevenage supremo – and former England number ten – Teddy Sheringham praised Wayne Rooney for breaking Sir Bobby Charlton’s Three Lions goalscoring record this week.

Sheringham, who scored 11 international goals in 51 appearances for his country, including netting in the never-to-be-forgotten 4-1 triumph over Holland at Wembley during Euro 96, paid tribute to the Manchester United player today.

Rooney – who eased past Sir Bobby’s 49 goals in a statistic which has stood since 1970 – reached his half century of international strikes with a late penalty against Switzerland during his country’s 2-0 win at Wembley.

Speaking at his press conference this morning, Sheringham said: “Wayne Rooney is a very, very good player. I don’t know whether he’s England’s greatest ever player, but he’s certainly England’s greatest ever goalscorer.

“He’s a fantastic number ten. If he had played with someone like Alan Shearer or Gary Lineker he would have certainly made goals for those two.

“I know he plays as a number nine and he’s done really well – but I think he’s a better number ten – which means providing goals as well as scoring goals.

“When you play in that role as a number ten it’s also about scoring goals as well as providing them, and he’s certainly done that.

“We’ve played games against smaller nations – but he’s also scored goals against top nations, so he’s proved it beyond doubt that’s he is one of our top strikers.”