Is Harry Kane England’s greatest ever striker?

Time Stamp: March 30, 2022 7:17 AM

Another productive international break saw England captain Harry Kane move to 49 international goals, with the striker likely to claim Wayne Rooney’s record by the end of the year.

 

Kane hit 16 goals in 16 games for his country in 2021 and having found top form for Tottenham again in recent weeks, he will be looking forward to the Qatar World Cup despite continued speculation that his future could be elsewhere for the 2022-23 domestic season.

 

Only Rooney has scored more England goals than Kane, but the record will surely fall soon given the Three Lions have six games to play in the Nations League before the World Cup.

 

It begs the question: is Harry Kane already England’s greatest ever striker?

 

Accusations of stat-padding are unfair

 

Kane made his England debut in March 2015, which makes it even more incredible that he is already on the brink of becoming his country’s leading goalscorer just seven years later. Some critics have pointed to the fact that many of Kane’s goals have come against the lesser lights of international football, but this has always been the case for strikers, mainly due to the schedule.

 

A hat-trick against Panama helped Kane to claim the Golden Boot at the last World Cup, becoming only the third striker in England history to earn a match ball during the tournament. Kane notched his fifth treble for England with a four-goal haul in a 10-0 thrashing of San Marino in World Cup qualifying last November. Only Jimmy Greaves has hit more England hat-tricks.

 

Greaves netted his 44 international goals at a remarkable rate, reaching that figure in just 57 games for the Three Lions. Hat-tricks against Northern Ireland, Luxembourg and Norway show Greaves, like Kane, tended to make hay against easier international opposition in his heyday. Missing out on the chance to be part of England’s World Cup win in 1966 perhaps stood in Greaves’ way of being regarded as England’s greatest striker, as well as the fact he was playing during the same era as Charlton, who scored his goals at a slower pace, similar to Rooney.

 

Rooney took 120 games to achieve his record 53 goals for England, though it is worth noting many of his later appearances for his country came in a deeper midfield role. Just seven of Rooney’s England goals came from the penalty spot, while Kane has converted 14 times from 12 yards for the Three Lions, including the penalty against Switzerland that took him to 49 goals and drew him level with Charlton. But Kane has only scored six of his England goals in friendly matches, while 30 per cent of Rooney’s international strikes were in non-competitive games.

 

Comparing players across eras is challenging but Charlton held the record of being England’s top goalscorer for 45 years before he was finally eclipsed by Rooney, who emerged as a teenage talent tipped to be the world’s best but arguably failed to maximise his vast potential. In the year England won the World Cup, Charlton also claimed the Ballon d’Or for himself.

 

Team honours still eluding Kane

 

Collecting individual awards has never been a problem for Kane, though he has rarely been viewed as being in the conversation to win the Ballon d’Or  as Charlton did. The 28-year-old has been included in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year five times and he has won the league’s Golden Boot three times, with only Arsenal icon Thierry Henry claiming it more often.

 

The major blot on Kane’s record is a lack of silverware. Rooney won everything during his time at Manchester United, his 16 trophies including a quintet of Premier League winners’ medals and a famous triumph in the 2007-08 Champions League. Charlton, another Old Trafford great, captained United to European glory and, with Greaves, won the 1966 World Cup for England.

 

England failing to win an international tournament for several decades is not just down to Kane, just as it was not Rooney’s fault that the so-called Golden Generation was not able to bear fruit. But his career lacks the defining moments of a Rooney, a Charlton, a Greaves or even a Gary Lineker, who hit six goals in the 1986 World Cup including a hat-trick in a 3-0 win over Poland.

 

Barring a catastrophic injury or a highly unlikely total loss of form, Kane will soon overtake Rooney and become England’s greatest goalscorer. His highly impressive goals-per-game ratio will ensure he will be regarded as one of the most devastating finishers of his generation.

 

Perhaps only firing England to glory at the World Cup would settle this debate once and for all.

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