England Uncovered: The big difference between Rashford compared to Owen and Rooney at 18
MARCUS RASHFORD'S meteoric rise into England's Euro 2016 squad has been compared with Michael Owen in the 1998 World Cup and Wayne Rooney in Euro 2004.
But although both Owen and Rooney were also 18 when they went to their first major international tournaments, the big difference was that they had far more senior experience with their clubs than Rashford has under his belt for Manchester United.
After making his debut for Liverpool at Wimbledon at the tail end of the 1996-97 season, Owen then enjoyed a full campaign in their first team under Roy Evans the following season.
He made 44 appearances and scored 23 goals - 18 of them in Premier League which gave him a share of the Golden Boot - and was even voted runner-up to Zinedine Zidane in the world player-of-the-year award.
Glenn Hoddle handed him his England debut as a substitute against Chile at Wembley in Februrary '98 and he scored his first international goal in a pre-World Cup friendly against Morocco.
Owen came on as a substitute in England's first two group games - scoring against Rumania - before starting the win against Colombia that secured their quarter-final place. Then came that goal against Argentina - and the rest is history.
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Rooney meanwhile had played two full seasons in Everton's first team - making 77 appearances and 17 goals - before Sven Goran Eriksson took him to Euro 2004.
And he had made his international bow 15 months before the tournament in a friendly agianst Australia at Upton Park in February 2003.
At the Euros he scored doubles against Croatia and Switzerland in the group games before breaking a metatarsal early in the quarter-final tie with Portugal, which England went on to lose in a penalty shoot-out.