The opportunity for home grown players in the Premier League may be the lowest among front rank football nations but here was the clearest evidence that sometimes an individual is good enough, strong enough, to get the better of even the most discouraging system.
There was a time when Wilshere might have felt like a foreign intruder from Hertfordshire amid the exotic accents of the Arsenal dressing room. Now he is the heart of his club - and, this evidence insists, also his nation.
Rooney scored the opener with fine accomplishment - and was at his sharpest when he played in the unstoppable warhorse Frank Lampard for the restoration of England's lead - but it was Wilshere who had undermined Brazil with a through-ball of devastating simplicity.
He kept on doing it with a relish for the action which separates from the merely good and talented players those who are determined to leave their imprint on every game they play. In Wilshere's case the promise that the bigger the game, the bigger the imprint.
Captain Steven Gerrard, for whom Rio next year represents a Last Hurrah to be fought for more strenuously than any challenge he has faced before, had made an impressive impact in the early going and it was one that was maintained in the company of Lampard. Rooney was intent on justifying the praise of Brazil's Neymar that he was a point of genuine world class in the England team and there were times when he did it impressively enough. Still, when the man of the match announcement came it was surely the last word in formality.
Wilshere's future was clouded by what was increasingly feared to be serious injury. There were other worries. Too much pressure was being applied by a needful club and country. He may have earned his battle ribbons against Barcelona, no less, in his first full season of big-time exposure, but there was still a huge leap in becoming the man to lead Arsenal and England on to new and more encouraging terrain.
Here we saw that it is possible to meet the highest demands if you have a sufficient level of self-belief. The challenge represented by Brazil might have built in more vulnerable young minds, and especially when Scolari's audition moved on a new level of commitment with a piece of thrilling scoring skill by man who at that moment seemed poorly served by his stage name of Fred.
Wilshere could have hardly been less intimidated. He continued to play the kind of football that doesn't so much draw attention but announces a result. He played with a tactical understanding that owed little to any coaching manual. It was an instinctive feel for the flow for the action and, of course, it was been one of his most impressive characteristics since he first emerged as a potential major figure.
Along the way there have been cautionary statements about excessive risk in his tackling, a disturbing sense that sometimes his desire might be destructive as it was all-consuming.
At Wembley he mocked such worries. He said they were the excessive fears of more nervous souls. He knew what he had to do. He had to go out against the Brazilians and show that he was not only at home but that his feet were very firmly under the table.
This was a performance not only of burgeoning confidence but quite riveting authority. It had the mark of someone who has been remembered most intensely these last few days when thoughts have turned to the highest levels of international football. It was a touch of mastery from someone running years ahead of his time. Yes, it reminded you its most engaging way, of Bobby Moore. A different player, no doubt, but there he was, a young player running years ahead of his time, an old head, an old football soul at the heart of the action
