Harry Kane became England’s joint all-time leading goal scorer on Saturday, striking for the 53rd time against France in the World Cup quarter-finals to join Wayne Rooney at the top of the charts.
The captain, playing his 80th international, scored England’s only goal early in the second half at the Al Bayt Stadium in Qatar to pull level with former Manchester United forward Rooney.
The Tottenham forward scored his first senior international goal just seconds into his debut as a Wembley substitute against Lithuania in March 2015.
The 29-year-old was named as Gareth Southgate’s skipper ahead of the 2018 World Cup and led the team to the semi-finals, bagging the Golden Boot with six goals in Russia.
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He scored four goals at last year’s European Championship to help England reach their first major final since 1966.
Kane, who is closing in on Jimmy Greaves’s record as Tottenham’s record goalscorer, is clinical with either foot and his head.
But in recent years, he has also become a provider, dropping back regularly to hold up play and turn provider for both Spurs and England.
Kane was born in east London and joined the Spurs academy in 2009.
He had a number of loan spells as a young player as he tried to establish himself before his breakthrough season at Tottenham in 2014/15.
He has won the Premier League Golden Boot three times since then but has so far failed to win silverware for club or country, despite coming agonisingly close.
As well as the near-misses for England, Kane was on the losing side when Tottenham reached the Champions League final for the first time in their history in 2019, going down 2-0 to Liverpool in Madrid.