The calm demeanour, the sharp exhale, the run up and clinical finish. It was the same old penalty routine from Harry Kane, only this time it took him to a place no England player has gone before.
By netting from the spot against Italy on Thursday night, Kane fired himself into the record books, scoring his 54th international goal to surpass Wayne Rooney as England’s all-time leading goalscorer.
Remarkably, Kane has reached the tally in 39 fewer games than it took Rooney, and the 29-year-old’s England career includes an ominous strike 79 seconds into his debut, a World Cup Golden Boot and more than a goal a game in major tournament qualifiers.
Here is when, where and how the Tottenham striker became England’s top marksman.
A goal every 1.5 games
Six Englishmen have reached the 40-goal mark in international football, the other four being Sir Bobby Charlton (49), Gary Lineker (48), Jimmy Greaves (44) and Michael Owen (40).
What marks Kane out among this group is the speed at which he has scored his goals, accruing them at a rate of one every 1.5 games. Only the prolific Greaves can beat that with 1.3.
The deposed Rooney was much slower than Kane, amassing his 54 goals at a strike every 2.26 matches.
His acceleration since March 2021 has been something to behold – a tally of 22 goals in 28 games, including four in the first half of a 10-0 win over San Marino in November last year. He became the first player to score four goals in an England game since Ian Wright against the same opponent almost exactly 28 years earlier.
His penalty against France in the World Cup quarter-finals in Qatar in December saw him draw level with Rooney. Agonisingly, he missed the chance to overtake him by missing a second penalty in that game, which England lost 2-1.
Kane’s 16 goals in a calendar year (2021) is another England record, beating the 12 scored by Dixie Dean in 1927 and George Hilsdon in 1908.
And he has five England hat-tricks to his name, the same number as Lineker and one shy of the record tally of Greaves.
His fourth and fifth hat-tricks were scored just three days apart – the one in San Marino coming shortly after a treble against Albania at Wembley. This set a new record for a European player in World Cup/Euros qualifying, previously held by Spain’s Raul (four days in March 1999).
Kane also joined Vivian Woodward (1909), Dean (1927) and Tommy Taylor (1957) in scoring hat-tricks in successive appearances for England.
Most of Kane’s goals have come under Gareth Southgate – 49 of them in 64 caps to be precise. No player has ever scored more for a single manager in England men’s football history, with Lineker’s 35 in 58 matches under Sir Bobby Robson the next best.
Qualification king
The breakdown of the goals scored by England’s leading goalscorers says a lot about their era. Charlton and Greaves scored a combined six tournament goals and just nine in qualifying – with the vast majority (83.87%) coming in friendlies.
In contrast, goals in qualifying tournaments have become much more of a factor in the modern era – 20 of Owen’s 40 and 30 of Rooney’s 50 came in these matches.
Kane’s goal haul includes an incredible record of scoring in qualifying matches for major tournaments. He has netted 33 times in 28 games to help his country reach two World Cups and three European Championships – and he scored in a remarkable 15 qualifiers on the trot from 5 October 2017 to 8 September 2021.
During qualifying for the 2020 Euros, he netted in all eight of England’s games, scoring 12 in total against the Czech Republic, Kosovo, Bulgaria and Montenegro.
His record at major tournaments is not too shabby either. Four goals in 11 European Championship games may seem somewhat modest, but he has eight in 11 at World Cup finals – second only to the 10 scored by Lineker.
He and Lineker are the only two Englishmen to win a World Cup Golden Boot, the latter in Mexico in 1986 and the former in Russia in 2018. Alan Shearer – at Euro 96 – is the only other one to be top scorer at a major finals.
In total, Kane’s competitive scoring record for his country is 48 goals in 68 games.
On the flip side, only seven of Kane’s goals came against sides occupying a top 10 spot in Fifa’s world rankings at the time.
Three of these were in friendlies – one in a 3-2 win in Germany in March 2016 and a double in another 3-2 victory, this time against France, in June 2017. Three were against a then fourth-ranked Croatia in a 2-1 home Uefa Nations League win in November 2018, the extra-time penalty winner in the Euro 2020 semi-final against Denmark, who were then ranked 10th, and his goal against fourth-ranked France in Qatar.
His goal against Italy on Thursday is the seventh, with the Azzurri currently ranked sixth in the world.
The average ranking of the teams against whom he has scored his goals is 64.55. Rooney is slightly behind him on this front, with an average opponent ranking of 69.21.
The team against whom he has scored the most goals is San Marino with five, although Germany will also be sick of the sight of him, with Kane having scored in all four of his games against them.
How, when and where?
For all of his international career, Kane has functioned as England’s central striker – a predominantly right-footed predator, who comes alive in the box. The nature of his goals reflect this.
Over 70% of his goals (39 of 53) have been scored with his right foot, with all but two of them from inside the box (including an England record of 18 penalties).
The breakdown of which minutes his England goals have come in offer a fascinating insight, with each half yielding a similar pattern.
There are a number of factors that can play into this, but the increasing number scored towards the end of each half does hint at a forward who grows as a threat as he becomes ever more acclimatised to the game and opposition legs tire.
He has 31 goals outside England (10 of those at neutral venues) and scored 23 at home, 19 of them at Wembley, with the other two coming at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium and St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton.
Where does he rank against the world’s best?
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo is the top goalscorer in international football history, with 120 goals in 197 games.
Beneath him are six players who have reached the 80-goal mark – Iran’s Ali Daei (109), Argentina’s Lionel Messi (98), Malaysia’s Mokhtar Dahari (89), Ferenc Puskas, who represented Hungary and Spain (84), India’s Sunil Chhetri (84) and Ali Mabkhout of the United Arab Emirates (80).
Kane’s goal every 1.5 games puts him above all of those players but Puskas (a goal every 1.01 games) and Mabkhout (every 1.34 games).
Still more to come?
Age is on Kane’s side as regards extending the England goals record further.
He is currently 29 years old, giving him potentially another four or five years of international football, barring injury.
At Kane’s age, Rooney had 47 goals to his name, Charlton had scored 41, Lineker 29, while Greaves and Owen had both played their final international match.
Kane shows no sign of slowing in his goalscoring either, having recently passed the 270 mark for Tottenham. He has 204 Premier League goals to his name, meaning only Rooney (208) and Alan Shearer (260) sit above him on the list of all-time scorers in the rebranded English top-flight.
Kane’s international career could also be prolonged by the lack of an obvious natural successor waiting in the wings.
The next highest scorer in the current England setup below Kane is 27-year-old Raheem Sterling with 20. Only two more current internationals – Danny Welbeck and Marcus Rashford – are into double figures. Forward Bukayo Saka and centre-back Harry Maguire are next with seven.
Southgate has experimented with a number of options to try and find a fitting backup to his captain, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Oli Watkins, Patrick Bamford, Tammy Abraham all making the squad. Brentford’s Ivan Toney and Callum Wilson of Newcastle are the latest.
Six and a half years separated Rooney and Kane breaking the England goals record. We are likely to be waiting much longer for Kane’s eventual successor.
