England captain Wayne Rooney has said that the highly rated Raheem Sterling can be as good as former Arsenal and Barcelona great Marc Overmars, with the Man Utd forward clearly believing Sterling has a great future ahead of him, as reported by The Guardian.

Rooney is expected to skipper the national side into their first game of the European Championship qualifying period against Switzerland on Monday, but there are questions over the performances of several key players going into that game, including Rooney himself.

Sterling, however, has come to the fore in recent months. He first impressed during Liverpool’s run towards an unlikely Premier League title challenge, before emerging from this summer’s World Cup as one of only very few players with any credit.

Rooney clearly believes that Sterling can be an important player going forward, but as a former young prodigy himself, knows the importance of not overstating a player’s talent before they actually hit their heights.

He said: “He’s quite an unusual player, someone who can play right across the front line and out wide.

“Although he’s a small lad he’s really strong as well. I sat down with him before the World Cup and showed him videos of Marc Overmars. He reminds me of him.

“He’s a young lad, but the potential he has shown is incredible. In fact, he has the potential to be as good as Overmars. A fantastic player – you saw that last season and again, already, at the start of this one. He’ll be a massive player for us for the next 10-15 years and, unfortunately, also for Liverpool.”