Marcus Rashford has revealed that when he was a child, his favourite shirt to play in was an England one with Wayne Rooney’s name and number on the back.

Growing up in Manchester, my family had a little competition going on. Whenever they were buying me a gift for my birthday or for Christmas or whatever, they always knew the easy thing to get me. The latest football kit.

But, coming from Manchester, families can be… divided. At least mine was. Half my family were United supporters and the other half were City. So these kits were more than gifts, you know what I mean? Especially as I got older and I kept getting better at football, my uncles would buy me the newest red or blue kits to try to bring me over to their side. It was a bit of a running joke in our family.

But there was one kit that I will never forget getting, and it wasn’t United or City. One night, I came home after a kickabout with my brothers out front. My uncle was over and he had something for me. Another football top. Another red football top – he was United all the way.

I took it from him and looked at it. And that was when I realized that this one was different. On the top left of the chest was a crest with three lions and one gold star. My first England shirt. I flipped it over to see if it had a number on the back. (That was always a big deal.) It was 9 and, just above that… ROONEY.

As every kid does, when you’re having a kickabout and you’ve got someone’s name on your back, you just try to follow in their footsteps. I was a striker, so from that day, I wanted to be just like Rooney. And I wanted to play for England.