Tottenham Hotspur’s talisman Harry Kane has been a constant menace for opposition defenders ever since he made his breakthrough to their first team in the 2014-15 Premier League season.
The English striker has, in fact, been as devastating for his country as he has been for his club. He recently scored his 200th club career goal and also has 32 goals for his country on the international stage.
Harry Kane has scored 143 Premier League goals and been widely tipped by many to not just break Alan Shearer’s Premier League record of 260 goals but also Wayne Rooney’s national team record of 53 goals for the Three Lions.
On the occasion of his 27th birthday, we delve into Harry Kane’s stats, the numbers that make him one of the most sought-after hitmen in European football.
Kane’s clinical nature in and around the box
As far as strikers go, what separates the truly elite frontmen from the rest is their ability to come to life in and around the vicinity of the opposition penalty box. Only a handful of forwards in Europe fit into this category of poachers and Kane just happens to be one of them.
Of the 204 goals scored by him so far during his time with Leyton Orient, Millwall, Leicester and Tottenham, 177 of them have come from inside the box, while the remaining 27 have come from outside, as per the BBC.
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Harry Kane - The complete striker
Another defining characteristic of the truly great forwards is their penchant to score all sorts of goals, be it beautiful ones that are easy on the eye or scruffy strikes that many believe are true indicators of the best frontmen in football. Harry Kane once again ticks all the boxes in this regard owing to his capacity to get the ball over the line with any part of his body. He’s scored 123 goals with his right foot, 43 with his left, 37 headers, 26 penalties, a direct free-kick and one other goal.
Consistently amongst Europe’s best forwards
Perhaps the greatest factor to consider when sieving through the list of great frontmen is their propensity to consistently maintain their level and standards year after year and season after season. Many players manage to hit great heights in one season but their performances tail away in the subsequent campaigns. Kane is anything but a one-season wonder even though many pundits suspected that when he first made his breakthrough.
He has scored 20+ goals across all competitions in each of his last six seasons. The English striker has netted 31, 28, 35, 41, 24 and 24 goals in the past six campaigns and doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon.
Harry Kane’s trophy trove
Winning trophies is often how players measure success at the end of their careers. This is where Harry Kane falls short when compared with other great strikers. Even though he’s won the Premier League Golden Boot for the 2015–16 and 2016–17 seasons as well as the 2018 FIFA World Cup Golden Boot, Kane is yet to get his hands on any silverware with his club or country.
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He’s experienced the anguish of finishing as runner-up in the League Cup and the UEFA Champions League with Tottenham. With England, he’s finished third in the UEFA Nations League 2018-19 and fourth in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
However, with plenty of years still left in his career, it would take a brave man to put winning a trophy past him. Third on Tottenham’s list of leading goal-scorers, many believe it’s only a matter of time before he overtakes their all-time leading goal-scorer Jimmy Greaves’ record along with Shearer’s and Rooney’s records in the Premier League and with England respectively. That said, for Harry Kane himself, all that won’t count for much if he doesn’t have any trophies with his teams to show when he retires.
Images courtesy: AFP / Will Oliver / Michael Regan
