It felt inevitable that harry kane it would eventually break Wayne Rooney’s scoring record for the England men’s team, and the captain finally achieved that feat with his 54th career international goal in Thursday’s 2-1 win over Italy in a World Cup qualifier. Eurocup.
Kane, 29, traveled to the 2022 World Cup with a total of 51 goals in 75 appearances for the Three Lions, needing the Tottenham Hotspur striker two more to surpass former women’s team striker Ellen White (52) and one more. to overtake Rooney (53) as his country’s all-time top scorer.
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In his five matches in Qatar, Kane scored once in a 3–0 win over Senegal in the round of 16 to draw with White and then scored a penalty in the quarter-final against France. However, after sending another penalty over the bar in the 2-1 defeat, the the bluesKane had to wait until Thursday’s game at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium in Naples to reclaim the record in full, with a penalty.
Rooney scored 53 goals for England during a distinguished 13-year international career that ended with the action forward as his country’s top goalscorer and top outfield appearance creator (120 caps).
Rooney’s and Kane’s international careers overlapped for a time, with both players sharing the pitch for England 10 times before the former made his last appearance in a November 2018 friendly against the United States at Wembley, a match in which Kane remained on the roster. bank.
Kane’s England goalscoring record
Kane has a goals per game record of 0.65 for England, which is better than Rooney (0.44), Sir Bobby Charlton (0.46), Gary Lineker (0.60), Michael Owen (0.45) and Alan Shearer (0.48).
Kane scored his 50th goal for England in June in his 71st appearance, taking his late penalty to secure a 1-1 draw against Germany in the UEFA Nations League. By contrast, Rooney’s 50th goal for England came in his 107th appearance for his country, also aged 29.
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50 goals for England 👊#LeagueOfNations | @HKane | @England pic.twitter.com/TIejOvkm88
—UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) June 11, 2022
Kane only scored one more goal in his last four international matches before the 2022 World Cup; again a late penalty in a Nations League tie with Germany, only this time in a thrilling 3-3 draw at Wembley in September.
Despite England scoring nine goals in their first three World Cup games, Kane netted none of them, though he still contributed by setting up goals for sterling rahim and Mark Rashford in a 6-2 win over Iran and then another for Phil Foden in the 3-0 win over Wales.
After equaling Rooney’s mark in the round of 16 in Qatar, Kane broke it on March 23 against Italy before half-time after VAR flagged a handball penalty against Italy. leonardo espinazzola.
HE HAS DONE IT! 👏
Harry Kane has now scored more goals for England than any other player in the history of the men’s national team, breaking Wayne Rooney’s record (54). pic.twitter.com/SpTBZcspti
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) March 23, 2023
Of Kane’s 54 goals for England, 18 have come from penalties.
The even better news for Kane is that, with Rooney leaving international football in 2017 and retiring for good last year, and White hanging up his boots after England’s Euro 2022 triumph in the summer, he is now free to continue adding to his numbers. for the foreseeable. future to keep the record safe from him for as long as possible.
How Rooney set the England record
Rooney was 29 when he converted a penalty against Switzerland in a 2-0 win at Wembley during their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign to become England’s new all-time top scorer in September 2015.
As well as being his 300th career goal for club and country, the 48th-minute penalty was Rooney’s 50th international goal for England in senior international competition, putting him one goal short of the record. that Manchester United alumnus Charlton had had for 45 years Rooney had equaled Charlton’s record of 49 goals just four days earlier with another successfully converted penalty in a thumping 6-0 win over San Marino that formally sealed the place of The Three Lions at Euro 2016.
History maker 🙌#In this day four years ago, @Wayne Rooney scored his 50th international goal to become the #Three lionsTop scorer of all time! pic.twitter.com/IjRTtMF2IP
— England (@England) September 8, 2019
Coincidentally, Rooney’s goal against the Swiss came after the fresh-faced 21-year-old Kane came off the bench to open the scoring for England with his third goal in four internationals. This was after a great season with Spurs in which he scored 31 goals in all competitions.
Speaking after the match, Rooney was incredibly complimentary about his prolific new substitute, also admitting that the emergence of Kane had begun to make him “fear for his place” in the England squad. prophetic things.
really excited about @Wayne Rooney . A great player with a record that will last a long, long time. or he will @hkane28 ?
—Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) September 8, 2015
The history of England’s goalscoring record
Before Rooney took over, England’s all-time goalscoring record stood at 49 goals and had belonged to Charlton since 1970. However, the World Cup-winning midfielder had also broken and lost the record during his career. 13 year old international.
Having first made his debut for the Three Lions in 1958, it was a hat-trick in an 8-1 win over Switzerland in June 1963 that saw Charlton record his 30th goal for England, thus equaling the all-time goalscoring record. times shared by Tom Finney. and Nat Lofthouse. Charlton’s record 31st international goal followed in October of that year when he netted in a 4-0 win over Wales at Ninian Park in Cardiff.
Charlton held the record for almost exactly one year before Jimmy Greaves, playing like an outright striker, surpassed his teammate’s England goal tally in October 1964 with a hat-trick against Northern Ireland in October 1964. 1964, his 11th international goal in his last 10 games and 32 overall.
As Greaves continued to score at a steady pace, the resurgent Charlton then regained the record once more in 1968 when he scored his 45th England goal, a signature long-range rocket, in a friendly against Sweden, thus surpassing Greaves’ tally of 44. .
Charlton scored five more goals in the last 21 games of his England career before retiring with 49 after the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, where he failed to find the net as the defending champions lost the quarter-final to Brazil.
Two decades later, Lineker came close to matching Charlton’s record, but finally ended his eight-year international career in 1992 with 48 goals scored in 80 games. It took Rooney until 2015 to finally break the 50-goal barrier and thus write himself in history.
