Harry Kane believes he was made a scapegoat for England’s underwhelming performances at Euro 2024.
The England captain’s three goals saw him share the Golden Boot with five players, but he was widely criticised for appearing off the pace in their run to the final.
Kane, who was nursing a minor back injury heading into the Euros, will earn his 100th cap tonight as England host Finland at Wembley in the Nations League.
The 31-year-old insists he is still at the peak of his powers. He said: “I am conscious of the summer and talk about myself physically. Perception is a big thing in football. As a nation and as media or pundits, we were trying to find a reason why we weren’t playing as well as we had in other tournaments.
“Maybe my form took the brunt of that. It was like, ‘Why is he not scoring goals?’ But I felt good.
“Just as a team, I felt we were not quite clicking. Quite a few of the lads, if we talk honestly, we did not perform as well as we have done in other tournaments.
“At 31, I am in a good place both mentally and physically and some of the players ahead of me, like [Cristiano] Ronaldo, have helped prove to me I can be at this level for a long time.”
Kane is England’s all-time record scorer with 66 goals and believes he can become only the fourth man ever to hit a century, following in the footsteps of his idols Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, as well as former Iran striker Ali Daei.
“Yes, it’s definitely possible, it’s there,” he said. “What is it, 34 goals [away]?
“I was on 30 goals and then, bam, I went to 50 and 60. “These are good targets to try to reach.
“Some people may see them as unrealistic, but I would rather go for something unrealistic and not quite make it than be comfortable just saying I will be happy with 70 or 80 goals.”
The Bayern Munich man still believes he will win a major trophy with England, after a succession of near misses.
He said: “I think [I will]. When you come so close and don’t quite get over the line, it’s of course hard to take.
“But it definitely leaves that taste, that hunger, that I want to be back there. In the summer, we weren’t playing our best stuff but still found a way to get there, which was a great sign for a football team.
“The more times you get to these finals, you start to get a reputation, teams start to fear playing against you. You see it at club level with Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. That’s where we’re at.
“But we need to take advantage of that because we know how quickly things can change, and you can all of a sudden not be getting to finals and semi-finals. We need to make sure while we’re at this level we keep pushing to try get over that line.”
