Harry Kane set for 100th England cap after debut questions and Shearer pep talk (original) (raw)

Harry Kane didn't make his senior England debut until the age of 21, but the Bayern Munich striker has been a near permanent fixture ever since.

If selected against Finland on Tuesday, it will be Kane 's 100th England outing from the last 124 fixtures. He was an unused substitute for a further 10, while all but four of the games he missed outright were friendlies.

Kane is already England's highest ever scorer with 66 goals, and Luis Suarez's recent international retirement announcement means there will soon be only six active players with more in the men's game. Since overtaking Wayne Rooney with a goal against Italy in 2023, he has scored 12 times in 18 games - including three during the run to the Euro 2024 final.

It's strange, then, that Kane's initial acceptance into the England squad was questioned by some. Here, Mirror Football looks at the 31-year-old's journey as he becomes just the 10th man to bring up a century of senior England games.

When Kane got his first call-up, for a double-header against Lithuania and Spain in 2015, a few fans were asking questions despite his impressive league form. He was enjoying a breakout season for Tottenham, bagging a first senior hat-trick in a Europa League win over Asteras, and he added his second treble against Leicester just days after Roy Hodgson called him into the squad.

There were other contenders, though. Charlie Austin was in the midst of an 18-goal season in the Premier League for relegated QPR - just three fewer than Kane - while there was clamour for Danny Ings as he stood out amid similar challenges for Burnley.

Hodgson, however, had no doubts. “It would have been much more of a surprise had he not been selected than him being selected and we’re delighted to welcome him to the fold and try and help him establish himself because he’s like a lot of the players in our squad," the manager said.

“They are young but some of them have gone on, having been given their chance to really establish themselves and we hope that is going to happen for Harry as well. We do know quite a lot about him, not least of all from his work with the Under-21s. I worked with him myself for a period of two or three days when I took charge of the Under-21 team.”

In the end, it took Kane just 79 seconds to silence his critics against Lithuania, coming off the bench to become the third-quickest debut scorer for his country. He didn't net on his first start against Italy but did net two in two during the September 2015 break... though some still wanted more.

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Kane scored less than two minutes into his England debut (

Image:

The FA via Getty Images)

“I’m glad for him, because since the season has started he’s missed a few chances, and that really takes you back and you start to lose confidence," former Spurs star Alan Mullery told talkSPORT after Kane drew blanks in Spurs' first four games of the 2015-16 season. “But the boy is a goalscorer, he chipped the goalkeeper beautifully for his goal against San Marino, and that will give him a lot more confidence so when he goes back to Spurs he can start scoring again.

“He’s only 21 and he’s still learning his trade. He did his apprenticeship last season, where he got into the side and regularly scored goals, and now he’s got to prove to everyone that he’s not a one season wonder."

That same September, Kane opened up on the advice from Alan Shearer which helped him put things in perspective. Shearer had earlier suggested Kane wouldn't slow down and stop working hard after that maiden call-up, and few predictions have been proved more right over the years.

“We shared some things because he’s been in the same sort of situation as I am now and he gave me some good tips," Kane said. "It was great to hear what he went through sometimes and what he did about it.

“He just said that you are going to go through games without scoring but the best strikers in the world just put it to the back of their mind and focus on the next chance or goal. Talking to players like that can only help me – players who have been there and done it at the top level for years. That’s what I’m aiming to do.”

Harry Kane became England's all-time record scorer in 2023 (

Image:

Getty Images)

Kane needed just 44 appearances to pass Shearer's 30 England goals, with the Newcastle legend reaching that tally in 63 outings. He hit the benchmark at the age of just 26, thanks to a hat-trick in a Euro 2020 qualifier against Montengro in November 2019, having already done something Shearer never achieved by winning the World Cup golden boot the previous year.

Gareth Southgate's team won seven of their eight qualifiers, scoring 37 goals in eight games, and Kane was a big factor in that achievement. He scored in all eight fixtures to finish with 12 in total - a record for an eight-game qualifying campaign until Romelu Lukaku scored 14 to help Belgium reach Euro 2024.

No one will know what Kane might have been capable of had the Euros taken place as planned in the summer of 2020, and had he not picked up an injury shortly after that devastating qualifying campaign. After recovering from a hamstring problem for a rescheduled finale to the Premier League season, he scored seven in nine for Spurs.

Kane ended up with 33 goals in all competitions for Spurs the following season, while taking on more creative responsibilities for his club. He also scored four in England's run to the Euros final, but still ended up empty-handed.

Anyone who has followed Kane's career won't be surprised by what followed. Alongside a continued rise up the Premier League's all-time goalscorer charts, he had Rooney's England record in his sights.

That milestone might have arrived at the 2022 World Cup were it not for a painful penalty miss against France in the quarter-finals. Instead, though, the moment arrived against Italy and prompted Rooney to dub him a "Great man, unbelievable goalscorer and an England legend."

These days, the skipper has move onto his fourth England manager. After appearances under Hodgson and Southgate - with Sam Allardyce's sole game in between - Saturday's win in Ireland was Kane's first outing under Lee Carsley.

No currently active player has more England caps than Kane, who has some more milestones in his sights. Nine more caps after Tuesday would take him above Bobby Moore and into the top five of all-time, while a total of 120 would see him match Rooney as the most-capped England player in the 21st century.

Beyond that lies the all-time record of 125, held by Peter Shilton, and at Kane's current average of more than 10 games per year he has svery chance of passing it. Pointing to others who have continued playing well into their 30s, including the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, he seems confident of doing just that.

"I want to play football for as long as possible and at the highest level for as long as possible," he told BBC Radio 5 Live before the Ireland game. "I use those players for motivation and inspiration to be able to do that. I feel I am in a really good place both mentally and physically to have another great season, hopefully that continues for many years to come."

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