Harry Kane has broken his fair share of records over the last few years. Come December 2022, however, the Tottenham Hotspur talisman could, once again, be scribing his name into the English football history books.
Score five goals in Qatar and Kane will overtake the legendary Gary Lineker as the Three Lions’ most prolific World Cup goalscorer.
The England captain is already second in the all-time list. But who else makes up the top five?
England’s top World Cup scorers
1) Gary Lineker – 10 goals
England’s goal-poacher extraordinaire, Lineker certainly liked a ‘crisp’ finish (Geddit?!). In fact, he managed six of them in 1986 alone, despite the fact that England would only reach the final eight, their heartstrings snapped by Diego Maradona’s pesky left arm.
Lineker is one of only three England players ever to score a hat-trick on the biggest of stages. He netted all three in a group-stage victory over Poland. And while the Leicester legend might never have conquered the continent, at least he has a Golden Boot to treasure.
2) Harry Kane – 6 goals
Who would have thought, when Kane was embarking upon a series of seemingly never-ending loans, that this most unassuming of centre-forwards, born and raised in Walthamstow, would go on to become England’s most prolific tournament marksmen of the last 40 years?
Kane hit the net six times as Gareth Southgate’s merry men came within touching distance of a World Cup final in Russia. If he can replicate that tally in Qatar, Kane will not only become England’s greatest ever World Cup goalscorer, but England’s greatest goalscorer full stop.
Kane is currently four behind Wayne Rooney on the all-time list.
3) Geoff Hurst – 5 goals
Group-stage hat-tricks against Poland and Panama? Pfft. Forget it. Geoff Hurst knows how to make his mark when it matters most.
It was his iconic treble that fired England to glory over West Germany in 1966. To date, England’s one and only triumph in the so-called ‘Festival of Football’.
4) Bobby Charlton and Michael Owen – 4 goals
Alongside Hurst, Charlton was one of those homegrown heroes of ‘66, lifting the Jules Rimet high into the Wembley sky. Michael Owen would never scale the summit of international football himself, of course, but that was not for a lack of trying.
Owen, who was just 22 years of age when he won the Ballon D’Or, could have a statue outside of Wembley Stadium right now if things had worked out differently.
If England hadn’t lost on penalties to Argentina after his wonderful individual strike in 1998. If Ronaldinho had not bamboozled David Seaman four years later, rendering his early opener against Brazil a footnote in England’s rather tragic World Cup history.
5) David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Roger Hunt, Nat Lofthouse, David Platt – 3 goals
Five players in England’s footballing past have hit the back of net three times in a World Cup. Manchester United legend David Beckham, former Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard, the late Roger Hunt, Bolton Wanderers’ ‘Lion of Vienna’ Nat Lofthouse and David Platt, scorer of that gorgeous volley against Belgium all the way back in 1990.
Now, you’re probably wondering when on earth Wayne Rooney’s name is going to come up. Well, it may surprise casual observers to learn that England’s all-time top scorer mustered just one goal in World Cup action. Fewer, in fact, than he managed at Euro 2004 alone, when the then-Everton whizzkid was still a fresh faced teenager.
In fact, Matthew Upson, Kieran Trippier, Mark Wright and Rio Ferdinand have scored as many World Cup goals as Rooney. John Stones has more.
Another legendary centre-forward, Alan Shearer, struggled to leave a lasting impression at the World Cup too, netting just twice. Paul Scholes, Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe grabbed just once apiece, while Frank Lampard never scored at a World Cup.
Well, technically speaking of course…
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