World class Rooney will get better and better, says Eriksson

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson believes that teenage striker Wayne Rooney, shwon here in September 2004, has already reached world class status and that 2005 will see the Manchester United star cement his place at the top of the game.

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson believes that teenage striker Wayne Rooney has already reached world class status and that 2005 will see the Manchester United star cement his place at the top of the game.

Despite Rooney's 2004 finishing on a dark note having been hit with a three-match ban for shoving Bolton defender Tal Ben Haim in the face, Eriksson still tipped the 19-year-old to get better and better in the new year.

"Of course he can be better and I'm sure he will be better. That says a lot about him. He's already one of the best in Europe - one of the best in the world, I think," said Eriksson of the man who set Euro 2004 alight with four goals.

"The great thing about him is that he can play first striker, second striker and, with United, he is sometimes also playing to the left now and doing extremely well. So he can play in a lot of roles which is very good.

"Maybe he's better when he drops off a little bit or goes out a little bit, but the quality he has he could also be a target player if Sir Alex Ferguson or I wanted that.

"It's very rare to see a young man with that vision of play because it's normally something you learn with the years but he seems to be born with it."

Rooney moved from Everton to United for 30 million pounds in the summer and Eriksson said the youngster's Champions League hat-trick against Fenerbahce at Old Trafford in September was a season highlight.

"One of them (the highlights) must be Rooney when he started to play for Manchester United. They played against Fenerbahce and he scored three times - he was absolutely fantastic. A better debut than that is very difficult to have," said the Swede.

"He's an extremely good football player and we remember what he did in Portugal. It was just a pity that he was injured against Portugal in the quarter-finals."