London (AFP) – Harry Kane is the ultimate specialist in Thomas Tuchel's England squad of World Cup "specialists" -- a man who has taken the art of goalscoring to rarefied heights.
Issued on: 30/05/2026 - 04:22
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The England captain is preparing for a third World Cup at the age of 32, with a burning ambition to end his country's 60-year wait for a major trophy.Kane's figures are staggering -- this season he won the Golden Shoe as Europe's top goalscorer for the second time, netting 36 times in 31 appearances as Bayern Munich surged to a 34th Bundesliga title.In September he reached a century of goals for the German club in his 104th match -- the fastest anyone has achieved that landmark at a single club in Europe's top five leagues this century.Kane finished the campaign with 61 goals for Bayern, including a hat-trick in the German Cup final.He is also Tottenham's all-time top goalscorer (280 goals), England's record goalscorer (78), and the highest-scoring English player in the Champions League (54).England boss Tuchel, who was Bayern manager when Kane arrived at the club in 2023, announced his 26-man World Cup squad last week, explaining he had "specialists for all kinds of different scenarios".The German admitted after England's disappointing defeat by Japan in March, in which Kane did not feature, that there simply is no replacement for England's talisman and leader."In the absence of Harry Kane, we don't have the same threat," he said. "Bayern Munich, in the absence of Harry Kane, has not the same threat, no team in the world has the same threat, it's just normal. "If top teams rely on top players and top nations rely on top players, that's just absolutely normal."Bayern's honorary president Uli Hoeness did not mince his words, recently describing Kane as the club's best-ever signing.ImpactKane made his international debut against Lithuania at Wembley in 2015, opening his goalscoring account just moments after he was introduced as a substitute, and has been relentlessly prolific for club and country.Yet there remains a curious sense that the England man is under-appreciated and underrated even in his own country.Questions have been raised over whether his international record has been aided by qualifiers against inferior opposition.
