For all his struggles at Tottenham this season, Harry Kane shows little sign of slowing down with England.
Having scored in three consecutive World Cup qualifiers against Hungary, Andorra and Poland back in September, he nabbed a perfect hat-trick against Albania on Friday evening. After opening his account with a routine header, he thundered in his second with his left foot before scoring a spectacular third with a bicycle kick off his right.
Kane now has 12 England goals this calendar year, which is a joint-record in itself. He first achieved the feat in 2019, matching sepia-tinted legends George Hilsdon and Dixie Dean, and is only the second player after Vivian Woodward to tally double figures in a year twice.
His hat-trick also gave him a reasonable claim to being England’s greatest ever striker, having made him the Three Lions’ top scorer in competitive matches. Wayne Rooney previously held the record with 37, though the Manchester United icon remains at the summit of the all-time goalscoring chart.
Kane has now drawn level with Jimmy Greaves with 44 England goals in total. That puts him joint-fourth on the list of the Three Lions’ most prolific players, with only Rooney, Bobby Charlton and Gary Lineker ahead of him.
Lineker, in third, has 48 England goals to his name, while Charlton has 49 and Rooney has 53. As such, Kane is five goals away from surpassing Lineker, six away from overtaking Charlton and 10 away from the all-time record.
Given that England face San Marino on Monday evening, Kane has an excellent chance to further reduce the deficit before the end of the international break. Speaking after the Albania game, he said: “[It was] nice to get the hat-trick, hopefully there’ll be a few more on Monday.”
Taking into account goals-to-game ratio, Kane’s goalscoring record for England seems even more impressive. Where Rooney required 120 caps to score 53 goals at a ratio of 0.44 per game, Kane has scored 44 in only 66 appearances at a ratio of 0.67.
England’s top 10 goalscorers of all-time
- Wayne Rooney: 53 goals, 120 caps
- Bobby Charlton: 49 goals, 106 caps
- Gary Lineker: 48 goals, 80 caps
- Jimmy Greaves: 44 goals, 57 caps
- Harry Kane: 44 goals, 66 caps
- Michael Owen: 40 goals, 89 caps
- Nat Lofthouse: 30 goals, 33 caps
- Alan Shearer: 30 goals, 63 caps
- Tom Finney: 30 goals, 76 caps
- Vivian Woodward: 23 goals, 29 caps
Lineker scored 0.6 goals per game for England in an international career spanning eight years, while Charlton scored 0.46 per game over a 12-year stretch. It may seem surreal, but Kane only made his England debut in March 2015, just over six-and-a-half years ago.
Of the top five England goalscorers, only Greaves has a better ratio than Kane, having scored his 44 goals in only 57 appearances at 0.77 a match. It helped that he scored a record six hat-tricks, with Kane needing two more to match him.
Only one of Greaves’ hat-tricks came in a competitive match, however, meaning Kane has the most in competitive fixtures. Kane also holds the joint-record for most goals scored at a World Cup tournament with six at Russia 2018, matching Lineker’s tally at Mexico ‘86, as well as the joint-record for scoring in most consecutive internationals – six – and the most goals scored from penalties with 10.
Ultimately, while Kane’s claim to the title of greatest England striker is still up for debate, there’s a lot of evidence in his favour. At 28, despite the current slump in his domestic form, he should have plenty more time to add the 10 goals which would settle the argument once and for all.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/30lFYcJ
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