WAZZA SAID THAT ONE DAY I’D BREAK HIS RECORD – AND I’VE STILL GOT MANY MORE YEARS IN ME
International defenders, beware: Harry Kane is going nowhere for quite some time yet. Spurs’ talisman is on the verge of breaking Wayne Rooney’s England goals record – and happily prepared to make life hard for anyone who attempts to topple him, as he tells FFT…
Words Chris Flanagan Portraits Nick Eagle
Sometimes, the simplest of things can trigger a childhood memory. For Harry Kane on this midweek afternoon, it’s just a single red stripe. The 28-year-old is standing in front of FourFourTwo, surveying the collection of retro England shirts we’ve brought along for today’s photoshoot, when one particular jersey leaps out to him. “That one,” he says, instantly linking it with a moment he’s never forgotten. “From when we beat Germany 5-1.”
Back then, Kane was an impressionable young pupil at Larkswood Primary Academy in Chingford, when he perched in front of the television one September evening and witnessed a match that inspired him for years to come. “It was an incredible game,” he says. “What was that, 2001? I was eight years old and you just remember something that stands out like that. Michael Owen’s hat-trick, Steven Gerrard’s goal, Emile Heskey with the other one. Just amazing.”
As he watched England’s victory unfold, that wide-eyed eight-year-old had no idea what future lay ahead of him. A World Cup Golden Boot, a famous moment of his own against Germany at Euro 2020, and already more goals for England than Owen scored in the whole of his distinguished career. Today, Kane sits on 49 goals from just 69 games for the Three Lions – it’s a matter of when, not if, he matches Wayne Rooney’s record of 53 goals. It’s not impossible it could even happen in the next few weeks.
If you’d told Kane all of that back in 2001, his mind would have been blown. “Back then I wouldn’t have even thought about it!” he laughs, admitting that reality has already gone far beyond that young boy’s wildest dreams. “It’s really special to be on 49 England goals. It’s been an amazing journey so far.”
HERE IN 79 SECONDS
For Kane, that England journey has been amazing from the very start – since a goal with his first touch for the Three Lions, at that. Some take years to bag for their country; Kane needed seconds. Looking back, it was a pretty obvious sign that he was destined for greatness.
There’s a smile on the striker’s face as he thinks back to that senior debut against Lithuania in March 2015 – so rapidly has he galloped towards the England goalscoring recor
