Is Wayne Rooney the Peter Pan of English football?

It is beyond contradiction that the achievement of reaching 100 international appearances at any level in any sport is one fully deserving of enormous respect, and there will be plenty of plaudits heading Rooney’s way when he walks out at Wembley. There is also no doubt that he has contributed much to the England cause in the 11 years since he made his debut as a 17-year-old.

He will join a list of century makers which features two World Cup winners in Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton, World Cup semi-finalist Peter Shilton and Billy Wright, the first to reach the century and who did so without a single caution or sending off. Rooney himself has had the good grace to admit this week that he doesn’t belong in that kind of company.

When we look back on his international career so far, the hard currency by which it may be judged is in red cards rather than glittering prizes.

The other four, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard, are all contemporaries of Rooney in the so-called golden generation, none of whom experienced the rarefied atmosphere of life beyond the quarter-finals of a major tournament. And it is surely at that level that the all-time great players must be judged

Germany’s centurions include Franz Beckenbauer, Lothar Mathaus and Miroslav Klose. Italy’s 100 club features Dino Zoff and Fabio Cannavaro. Spain have Iker Casillas, Andres Iniesta and Xavi while France boast Zinedine Zidane, Didier Deschamps and Thierry Henry who reached three figures for their countries. All of these players have winners’ medals as well as a pile of caps to show for their international careers.

Rooney’s sensational tournament debut aged 18 at Euro 2004, when he scored four goals in three games before an unfortunate injury cut short his involvement in the last eight match against hosts Portugal, drew not unreasonable comparisons with the teenage Pele and suggested England had found a player around which they could sweep all before them.

Instead Rooney has, in some ways, been the Peter Pan of English football; the little boy who never grew up. When we look back on his international career so far, the hard currency by which it may be judged is in red cards rather than glittering prizes.

His first World Cup in 2006 ended in the ignominy of being sent off for a stamp on Ricardo Carvalho in another last eight clash with Portugal, leaving him absent for the penalty shootout which England lost. Four years later, in South Africa, Rooney offered little on the pitch in a dismal campaign and made matters worse by sarcastically abusing armchair supporters after the nadir of a goalless draw with Algeria.

This summer Rooney did manage to break his World Cup goalscoring duck at the tenth attempt against Uruguay but it was not enough to prevent the nation’s earliest exit ever from the tournament. His tally of one brought him level in the England World Cup scoring charts with such feared marksmen as Mark Wright, Matthew Upson, Rio Ferdinand and even Emile Heskey.

His only other European Championship finals appearance in 2012 was overshadowed by the senseless red card he incurred in the final qualifying match against Montenegro which, for a while, threatened England’s very qualification and then resulted in a three match ban, later reduced to two on appeal.

At the finals, he did score the winner on his return from that suspension against hosts Ukraine but was then out of sorts as Italy won a quarter-final penalty shootout in which Rooney, to his credit, scored.

Roy Hodgson’s decision to make Rooney captain following Gerrard’s international retirement was questioned by some, myself included, even before the latest needless sending off in a Premier League match against West Ham in September. This latest transgression came less than a month short of his 29th birthday and gave lie to the contention that this was a character who had finally learned his lessons and moved on to an increased level of maturity.

Rooney’s 101st cap is likely to come at Celtic Park in a friendly against Scotland next week which serves little purpose other than to underline the Football Association’s ongoing obsession with looking back into the past. We are told that plans are already afoot for the 2016 celebrations of the 50th anniversary of our only World Cup success in 1966. Dear God, there are now grandparents who are too young to remember that day. It is time to move on.

I very much doubt that the Germans felt the need this summer to go into overdrive commemorating the 60 years since their first triumph in 1954; they were far too busy with the present day matter of winning the trophy yet again in Brazil.

There is every chance that Rooney will go on to break the records for the most ever caps and goals for England, but whether he’ll ever lead us to glory at a major championship seems an increasingly remote possibility. His has been a good not a great international career and, at the highest level, one beset by the law of diminishing returns.

You can follow John Anderson on Twitter @GreatFaceRadio