Capello: 'Rooney is the key to World Cup glory'

Fabio Capello insists the key to World Cup success for England will be to keep Wayne Rooney fit and in the sort of goalscoring form that has taken him into the top three players in the world.

“I hope Wayne will be in the same form as he is now during the World Cup. I also hope he will stay fit because he is one of our most important players. Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney are the three best players at the moment.

“They all have different styles; one is very fast, one has great imagination and Rooney is more strong. This year he has scored many goals and is one of the best players in the world. They are all young, so they are three of the best players for the future, too.”

Capello says he is relishing the "biggest challenge of his career" in aiming to win the World Cup this summer - but had no idea he would face so many off-the-field problems.

The bugging of England's training camp last week was the latest issue, following scandals over the private lives of John Terry and Ashley Cole and stripping the Chelsea skipper of the England captaincy.

While Capello would not talk about any individual incidents, he did admit that when he took the job just over two years ago, he thought his main task would be picking his team and tactics.

Speaking at the glitzy Laureus Sports Awards in Abu Dhabi, Capello said dealing with off-field problems was new to him: "Usually my job has been to decide things on the pitch, not off it. It is a new job for me.

"But it is always important for me to have a challenge because at my age, without a challenge, I would stay at home and grow old. I like the challenge and this will be the most important one in my life.”

And Capello believes England are good enough to finally win the World Cup for the first time since 1966.

“When I was a club manager with Milan, Juventus, Roma and Real Madrid, my target was always to win games. Now it is the same.

"We have one of the best teams, and we hope to reach the semi-finals, minimum, and after a lot of years, to win the World Cup.

"We have a good team, good players and we believe we can beat any team because we can play at the same level as the best teams in the World Cup.”

Capello believes Brazil, Spain and his native Italy will be England's main rivals for this summer's tournament, and is dreaming of beating his countrymen in the final.

“To be England manager was a dream and I am really proud. I hope to play Italy in the final because I would be really happy. The target for every team is to play in the final, and at that moment my shirt would be an England one.”

And he is not concerned about the injury problems that have afflicted his defence.

“We have injury problems with Glen Johnson, Wes Brown, Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole, but the players that played against Egypt did very well so we don't have a big problem in defence.”