The head coach of the England national team, Gareth Southgate wants the country’s hitman, Harry Kane to break the country’s all-time highest goalscorer record in the forthcoming FIFA World Cup.
On Saturday, March 26, 2022, Harry Kane was among the lineup that faced Switzerland in a friendly match that took place at the Wembley Stadium.
In the 78th minute of the game which ended 2-1 in favor of England, Kane scored from the spot to double England’s lead.
Harry Kane’s goal in the Friendly match took the international goals tally of the 28-year-old English striker to a total of 49 goals in 67 games in all competitions.
This means that Harry Kane has now scored the same number of goals as the legendary Sir Bobby Charlton who scored 49 goals in 106 games before he retired in 1970.
Kane and Bobby Charlton are now joint second all-time highest goalscorer in the history of England’s national team. As it stands, Kane has to score four goals to equal Wayne Rooney’s 53 goals.
If Kane scores at least five goals for England’s national team before he retires from international football, he would become England’s all-time highest goalscorer.
After the 2-1 win over Switzerland on Saturday, the head coach of the national team, Gareth Southgate said Harry Kane would be proud to be mentioned among the greatest names in English football.
The coach stressed that the 28-year-old Tottenham Hotspur and England captain is now the favorite to break Wayne Rooney’s all-time goalscoring record.
“The names he is in and amongst now are incredible,” Southgate said. “Harry will appreciate that history, it will mean a lot to him to be in and amongst those names. You have to say he looks favorite to go and do that [break the record].
“I don’t want to put any sort of curse on that by saying any more. He wants the team to do well as well, he’s got this dual-drive which means that whenever he turns up, he’s got individual ambition and there is never a camp where he looks like he doesn’t want to play. That mentality spreads through the rest of the group.”
Harry Kane could break England’s all-time highest goalscoring record
England still have a couple of friendly games to play ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup which will commence in Qatar in November. On March 29, 2022, England are expected to face Ivory Coast in an international friendly match.
All things being equal, Harry Kane could score one or two goals in the friendly game which will bring him a step closer to breaking the goalscoring record.
According to coach Southgate, Kane’s “goals-per-game record is phenomenally good” which means that he has the potential of breaking the record before the World Cup.
But the coach does not mind if Kane breaks the record at the World Cup. He said: “I would like him to break the record in the World Cup final!
“I think he’s quite calm about it, he’s confident he can get there, his goals-per-game record is phenomenally good. I don’t know where that compares to Jimmy Greaves, but I imagine he would be the only other player close.
“Harry knows there is always going to be speculation. If he doesn’t break it before then [the World Cup], people will say he’s out of form and ask whether he should be in the team!
“One way or another, the focus will be on him, he’s used to dealing with it, and I’m sure he’ll be very calm about it whatever way.”
Below are the top 11 England’s all-time highest goalscorer
- Wayne Rooney – 53 goals in 120 games.
- Bobby Charlton – 49 goals in 106 games.
- Harry Kane – 49 goals in 68 games.
- Gary Lineker – 48 goals in 80 games.
- Jimmy Greaves – 44 goals in 57 games.
- Michael Owen – 40 goals in 89 games.
- Nat Lofthouse – 30 goals in 33 games.
- Alan Shearer – 30 goals in 63 games.
- Tom Finney – 30 goals in 76 games.
- Vivian Woodward – 29 goals in 23 games.
- Frank Lampard – 29 goals in 106 games.
