Tottenham star Harry Kane cemented his place in the history books on Thursday night as he became England's all-time men's leading goalscorer, bagging his 54th goal and breaking Wayne Rooney's original record of 53. It was a special moment for the Three Lions captain, who had a chance to earn the record at the World Cup in December, but missed a crucial penalty against France in the quarter-finals.
After being awarded a spot-kick against Italy in the Euro 2024 qualifiers, the striker made no mistake as he fired the ball beyond Gianluigi Donnarumma. England went on to win the game in less comfortable fashion than there first-half display would have suggested, but the headlines were all about Kane.
"It means everything," The 29-year-old told Channel 4 after the victory. "I was so excited to get the England shirt back on. It's a great night. We haven't won in Italy for so long so it's a special night."
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The messages came flooding in for the achievement that the forward had managed, with one particular piece of praise coming from the man who he took the record from. Rooney took to social media to congratulate Kane, but went a step further as he penned his thoughts on it in a column for the Times.
Discussing the aura of the Spurs talisman, the former Manchester United star compared him to an old teammate, saying: "He [Kane] took my attention in training straight away," Rooney said when discussing the first call-up Kane received in 2015. "It’s not that he did anything special or out of this world, it was just his finishing. It was brilliant, as good as anything I had seen.
"He more or less always hit the target and had a shot that was a bit like Frank Lampard’s. You could see it was natural to him. He didn’t have to look where the goal was — he already knew — and he would get his shot away at any opportunity.
"He was shooting from anywhere, all these mad angles, and that turned out to be a feature of his game. You’re in the box and think he’s going to cross it or pass, but he just shoots. You’re about to get frustrated and the ball flies in!
"The only other person I’ve seen like that is Cristiano Ronaldo and both he and Harry have what you would call a good kind of selfishness, an obsession with goals that is in-built. It is important to their success. I looked at the young Harry on the training pitch and thought: 'You really want to score.'"
With the record now broken, it's down to Kane to extend the lead he has before the end of his career and Rooney has predicted a big total. He continues: "He wants to be like Poland’s Robert Lewandowski, a goal machine who is still at the very top in his mid-thirties, and he has it in him to make that happen. I think Harry will finish with an England goals total well into the seventies."
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