Is Wayne Rooney Now the World's Best? Well, Nearly

Last night Wayne Rooney reached 30 goals for the season in all competitions. What's more the 24-year old netted yet another header to add to his ever growing collection this season.

Of his 30 goals, 10 have been headers.

This is astonishing when you think before this season he had only scored four headers in all his previous games for United. Clearly all that intensive work over the summer was worth it.

The important point here is that Rooney has finally come-of-age and fulfilled the immense potential we've all known he has since he burst on the scene as a raw 16 year old with Everton.

With the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid in the summer, it was essential to any chance United had of retaining their Premier League title that Rooney could step up and fill the goalscoring void that would obviously be left by the loss of the Portugese winger.

And boy did he step up, and then some.

At this stage the season before last, when Ronaldo had his best season with United, the Portugeses star had scored 31 goals, and that was with Rooney and Tevez doing all the dirty work for him so he could always be in the position to score.

Rooney still does all that dirty work now, as well as taking on Tevez's work now that he has Dimitar Berbatov as a strike partner. And he is only one goal behind Ronaldo's haul at this stage.

Yet has anybody really put in a serious claim for Rooney to be classed in the same bracket as current World Player of the Year Lionel Messi, or even Ronaldo himself?

Personally I don't think Rooney is quite up there with Messi yet, but yet is the key word here.

If he manages to continue his goalscoring form and perhaps better Ronaldo's total of two seasons ago, then surely nobody could begrudge him being put in this bracket. What's more with Antonio Valencia hitting terrific form at the right time for both United and Rooney, it would be fair to think that he could easily surpass the Potugese.

And with Messi not having his greatest season, by his own towering standards, this could be the year that Rooney finally becomes what we all thought he would be sooner or later, the World's greatest footballer.

The only stumbling blocks I can see in Rooney's path are whether or not United manage to chalk up a second Champions League title in three years, and whether England can finally perform to their potential in this summer's World Cup.

The World Player of the Year award has recently gone to the standout player in the team that won either of these competitions, whether they really deserved it or not(remember Fabio Cannavaro after the 2006 World Cup).

So the stage is certainly set for Rooney to take the biggest individual prize in world football, as long as Fergie and Capello can weave their magic once more.