By the end of England’s anxious victory over DR Congo on Wednesday, opening up the path to a last-16 tie with Mexico, Harry Kane’s numbers had taken another stride towards the extraordinary.His 12th and 13th World Cup goals had lifted the 32-year-old above Pele in the all-time scoring charts and level with France’s Just Fontaine. Just five others — Gerd Muller, Ronaldo, Miroslav Klose, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi — are left to catch.It is now also 20 goals for Kane in major tournaments and 84 in total for his country. Wayne Rooney, England’s next most prolific, is 31 behind and gradually being reduced to a dot in Kane’s wing mirror.Is Harry Kane England’s greatest ever player?Jack Pitt-Brooke and Rachael TindeEvery measure would suggest that the goalscoring records will keep falling at Kane’s feet, but even now, at the peak of his powers, it remains a stretch to consider England’s greatest centre-forward a global superstar — at least not on the level of his rivals for this summer’s Golden Boot in Messi, Mbappe and Erling Haaland. Even Jude Bellingham, England’s other talisman at this World Cup, can claim to have a greater international profile at almost 10 years his junior.Roles as World Cup poster boys, certainly outside of the UK, have been bestowed on others — Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Christian Pulisic and Lamine Yamal, in particular. In terms of English footballers, David Beckham, retired since 2013, carries a far greater commercial presence in the United States than Kane, the result of years of building a powerful off-field brand which now includes being part-owner of Messi’s Inter Miami.It underlines where Kane stands in football’s commercial world: big, but not that big. It is a curious standing for a player who captains his country, plays for one of world football’s biggest clubs in Bayern Munich and is by common consent one of the greatest goalscorers of his generation.Harry Kane is largely absent from the ‘faces’ of this World Cup (Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)Yet every indication would suggest that Kane is content to reside on the periphery of the spotlight, a point underlined by his choice of boot manufacturer since 2023, Skechers, a relatively modest outfit compared to Nike, Adidas, Puma and New Balance.“We often assume that if someone is one of the top players, that it translates into stardom beyond the pitch, but the reality is just different,” says Misha Sher, founder of One of Not Many and athlete marketing expert.“To be a global star, there has to be a combination of performance and marketability. It’s the whole personality piece. Harry Kane has certainly shown what he can deliver at the highest level at club and international games, but I’m not sure he’s ever shown the appetite to be anything other than that.”That is not to say Kane is not a commercial draw. Oura Ring signed up Kane and team-mate Declan Rice to lead their World Cup campaign. Google Gemini was another, setting up Kane as a barbecue chef in a social media campaign ahead of the tournament, building on other partnerships with Eveready, the battery company, and Allianz, the financial services provider that also sponsors Bayern.Kane’s off-field earnings will run into the multi-millions now he is a Champions League regular with Bayern, but his profile remains modest. His 18.7m followers on Instagram are half of Haaland’s audience and a fraction of Mbappe’s 132m. Kane is an English star but not necessarily a global one.“I don’t think it’s a case that the doors aren’t open to him,” says Rich Johnson, a sports marketing expert based in the UK. “They definitely are. He could max out, appear everywhere if he wanted to, but the decisions being made are very deliberate“I think that should be respected because you don’t see it enough where athletes recognise their weaknesses. It’s almost like a Royal-type, understated role with this England team. He clearly leans into this understated role where he can be a leader but also knows when to pull back. ”Kane, too, is aware of his limitations. He is, by nature, neither an extrovert nor a showman. He has done little to build a brand like other players who have achieved far less in their playing careers. Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, for example, has pushed himself into the commercial world far more than Kane, despite not even being deemed worthy of a place in Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad.“Take his equivalent in Haaland,” adds Johnson. “Haaland has built such a strong aesthetic identity around being this strong, classic Nordic character, while also being very Gen-Z focused, with a YouTube channel, collabing with creators like the Sidemen.“He’s also started doing Snapchat, showing this funny persona to followers. He doesn’t take himself too seriously but it’s created a very strong brand around himself. Harry Kane doesn’t have that. From an identity perspective, they’ve not developed a brand around him.”Kane’s commercial strategy is instead focused upon long-term unions. He became an investor and brand ambassador with Reflow, the sustainable clothing company, in 2024 and is a shareholder and brand partner in 3Bears, the Munich-based porridge and oats firm.Equity-led partnerships are the long-term bets that Kane appears drawn to, rather than the quick hits that can damage an individual’s commercial status. Johnson picks out Michael Owen, England’s one-time boy wonder, as an example after his social media campaign promoting Dubai went viral for the wrong reasons.The same opportunities are there for Kane, but working alongside his older brother Charlie, there has consistently been a conservative commercial approach. “They’re not chasing a quick buck. They’ve looked for more control and longer-term plays,” says Johnson.That is not to say Kane could easily alter his status. McDonald’s, one of FIFA’s biggest commercial partners, opted to use former Tottenham Hotspur team-mate Son Heung-min, captain of South Korea, in their range of collectable cups for this tournament but not Kane. Beckham, a player who never went further than a World Cup quarter-final, was the choice to represent English interests in the current campaign.Kane’s value to England on the field is beyond doubt (Zhang Chen/Xinhua via Getty Images)“The commercial reality is that marketability plays a huge part in what companies want,” says Sher. “I can point towards someone like Kevin De Bruyne. You could argue that he is one of the greatest midfielders the Premier League has ever seen, who has won many trophies. But from the commercial reality, he was probably nowhere near someone like Paul Pogba.“It’s not straightforward in what makes someone a commercial powerhouse or a star beyond the pitch. It’s about your performance, your marketability and your personality. You’ve got to have all three.”“Harry Kane is clearly a leader, someone performing consistently at the highest level, but does he aspire to have a presence beyond the field of play? I’m not sure he does.”The coming weeks, though, could yet have a transformative impact on Kane’s profile. A World Cup-winning captain would see him join a select few and also put him in pole position to win the Ballon d’Or, another means of turbocharging commercial appeal.“That would absolutely move things for him,” adds Sher. “It wouldn’t just be about commercial opportunities in the short term, but where it positions him as a World Cup winner, that would set a foundation for the next 30 years for Harry.”