by He wore the golden boots, as he won them. Three as the Premier League’s top scorer, one for beating all other scorers in the World Cup. It was a fitting way to celebrate Harry Kane’s hundred caps, but not the most fitting: it came after the presentations. England 2-0 Finland, Kane 2-0 Finland, a golden night for the golden boots.
Yet there is something understated about him. Kane has always been defined by his goals but he has also been reliable. “I want to score goals,” he said, a rather bland statement but one that has been the mantra of his career. It was no surprise, then, that Kane agreed to score on his 100th cap and when England were demanding a goal. He took Trent Alexander-Arnold’s pass, turned deftly away from Robert Ivanov and then delivered a brutal strike, rising as the pass sailed past Lukas Hradecky. It was typical of a man whose hunger is rarely sated that he collected another, with expert precision, from a Noni Madueke pass.
And that, in a nutshell, is what Kane has become: a remarkable but reliable finisher. One hundred caps may not be his most significant hundred, especially when he has expressed ambition to take his international goals tally into triple figures. “The best players in the world have scored more than me, so there are targets to be achieved,” he added. The simplicity of his gestures can hide ambition. The normality of Kane’s goals can generate abnormal statistics.
Kane is more than just numbers, but he is a formidable body of work: more than 400 goals for club and country, including 68 for England. The latest was scored by two of his daughters as mascots, with a gold cap presented by Frank Lampard, who is well-placed for the ambassadorial role.
It was Kane’s kind of night. Except for one thing: if he is known for not scoring in finals, he has also struggled to score in the Nations League. They were his third and fourth goals in 20 appearances in the new competition. But he has been able to tackle mid-table teams and European underdogs: records are set by prolific performances against Montenegro and Malta, Bulgaria and Albania. He had never faced Finland before, but even when Hradecky threatened to win their duel, as Bayer Leverkusen held off Bayern Munich again, Kane responded.
He is a goalscorer in his own right, in a select group of 10. The founder member, Billy Wright, was the first man to win 100 England caps. Some of those who followed him seemed destined to take their place in such company. Bobby Charlton and Wayne Rooney, the other two to score on their 100th appearance, were teenage prodigies. Kane was not. He was the teenager who scored five goals in 18 games on loan at Leyton Orient, the rookie who went on loan to Norwich and made just one league start. “I don’t think I was even thinking about 100 caps when I was on loan at Millwall, Leicester and Norwich,” he said. When he first broke into the England Under-21 team, Saido Berahino seemed the best striker. Berahino now plays for Rajasthan United. Kane now plays for Bayern Munich. It has progressed stealthily and has now become ubiquitous.
And in that respect, Lampard was a natural fit to feature on Kane’s historic night. He too was a self-made footballer, who surpassed all initial expectations of his abilities, a fearsome finisher who proved himself through his consistency. He was not touched by genius but he transformed himself into the best player he could be.
He has continued in that vein: his last cap was at 36, his last game at 38. Kane regards his longevity as an achievement in itself, with his admiration for Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Tom Brady partly due to their remarkable stamina. Kane is the fastest player to reach 100 caps in terms of time: after scoring 79 seconds after his debut, he was substituted 80 minutes into his 100th cap.
That meant there was no sixth England hat-trick: Carsley’s decision to replace him was at least rewarded with a standing ovation. It was, however, the seventh time in nine games that Kane had been taken off before the final whistle. Gareth Southgate took the initiative to replace him at Euro 2024. His disappointing performances suggested he was in decline, something Kane was keen to deny. “Every time you have doubts about yourself, it makes you want to prove people wrong even more,” he said.
A brace against Finland might not change much in that regard. It certainly wouldn’t change the main criticisms of him. It’s easy to mock Kane for his lack of medals; even his move to Bayern has yet to result in a trophy. But individual achievements still speak to his success. So far, the only man to captain England to two finals is 10th out of 10. But by 2027, he could be England’s most-capped player. And pretty close to his 100 goals.
