Marcus Rashford's first World Cup memory is of 2010 - now he hopes to take the next one by storm.
Rashford, 19, has emerged as England’s next big thing after his match winning performance at Wembley put Gareth Southgate on course for the World Cup.
Manchester United starlet Rashford insists he can handle the spotlight and believes the young 20-somethings like Dele Alli, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane can grow old together winning trophies for England.
Rashford said: “Hopefully we can be together for years and years and what we’re doing now is just the start of everything.
“We could be talking about much greater things in the future. For the players and obviously for the fans as well, that’s what we all want.
“You have to get the right balance, but we’re young, provided we all stay together and we all work on relationships off the pitch to make us better on the pitch. There are a lot of things going on in the background that hopefully can bring the best out of all of us.
“I won’t class it (Euro 2016) as a good experience because you never want to experience losing a tournament. I think it was a difficult one to take,
but hopefully next time around you hope to learn from it we and hopefully next time around we will do better.
“That is why people play football. We want to get the rewards, we want to put smiles on people’s faces. When you work hard, you get your rewards and that is what it is all about.”
England boss Gareth Southgate accepts that Rashford will now be the focus of attention over the next nine months - but insists he can handle it and also the comparisons to Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen.
Southgate said: “I am sure he would rather be compared with Rooney and Owen than not. He is obviously a different type of player.
"He is as mature as they were in terms of their understanding of the game and the way he picks up concepts. But yes, it is up to him now.
“He has the mental strength, he is very mature.”
