Wayne Rooney intends to go into management when his career as a footballer is over, having already begun working towards the relevant coaching badges. Speaking at the Football Writers' Association annual dinner where he was honoured as Footballer of the Year, Rooney said he could not imagine a life outside of football.

"I would like to [step into management]," Rooney said. "I started doing my coaching badges this year, and probably did not do as many classes as I would have liked.

"Hopefully I can continue them next year. I love football and enjoy football – I can't see myself running a restaurant, I want to be in football."

However the striker, who polled just over 81% of a record number of votes cast to win the award, insisted he had plenty left to achieve in his playing career first.

"I am only 24. Hopefully I can progress and the best years are still ahead of me," he said. "I am always learning every day, and take things in from all my team-mates, both at United and with England.

"As a player you are never the finished article. I want to keep learning and getting better."

Rooney's immediate focus is on the World Cup, and specifically on recovering full fitness in time for England's first warm-up game against Mexico on Monday 24 May. He has been struggling with ankle and groin problems since Manchester United's Champions League quarter-final first-leg defeat to Bayern Munich on 30 March.

England's World Cup campaign begins against the United States in Rustenburg on 12 June. They will also face Algeria and Slovenia in Group C, but before then they have the friendly against Mexico, at Wembley, and a final warm-up against Japan, in Graz, on Sunday 30 May.

"I am looking forward to the biggest tournament in the world and I cannot wait for that first game," Rooney said. "I am looking forward to getting there with the lads and start the training for the game against Mexico and then it will be on to the World Cup."