Harry Kane’s win against Denmark was Harry Kane’s 275th goal for club or country. It sent England into their first major tournament final in 55 years.
The England captain, however, is 27 and still hasn’t won a trophy.
If Kane, the first Englishman to lift major pieces of international silverware since Bobby Moore 1966, this could change everything.
If he is able to maintain his scoring form in Euro 2020’s knockout stages, he will be rewarded with personal accolades.
Kane’s fourth goal in Wednesday’s three remaining games brought him level with Gary Lineker, England’s top goal scorer at major tournaments.
He would be able to join Patrik Schick and Cristiano Ronaldo as joint top scorers in the tournament with one more goal.
He would need two more to win the Golden Boot, his second consecutive tournament title after scoring six times at 2018 World Cup.
Kane stated that “Golden Boots” are a bonus. If I get them, it means I have scored one or two goals in final which gives our team a great chance to win the whole thing. That is the ultimate goal.
Kane struggled through the group stage, not scoring, and only barely threatened to score against Scotland, Croatia and the Czech Republic.
Kane looked so out-of-sort Gareth Southgate even substituted Kane’s skipper 15 minutes before the 0-0 draw against Scotland.
It seemed that a 49-game club season, in which he tried unsuccessfully to bring Spurs back into Champions League, had taken its toll.
Kane stated before the tournament that he might have to leave his boyhood club in order to fulfill his dreams of winning major trophies. Manchester City is interested in him becoming Sergio Aguero’s successor at Etihad.
He might envy the trophy hauls of international teammates Rahem Sterling, Kyle Walker and John Stones under Pep Guardiola at City.
OBSESSIVE GOALSCORER
Sunday is Kane’s chance to achieve a legendary status in the club game.
Alan Shearer, former England captain, wrote in The Athletic that he would have scored his way into immortality if he played one more game and scored a few more goals.
Kane’s career and the outcome of his tournament were changed by one moment in the final 16 minutes of the Three Lions victory over Germany.
Sterling’s opener had already made England 1-0 ahead, so Kane ran to get Jack Grealish’s cross. This set off wild scenes of celebration at Wembley when England beat Germany in the knockout tie.
Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, exclaimed, “Harry Kane finally scored!” as he watched in the Downing Street Gardens.
Kane scored against Ukraine in the quarterfinal in just four minutes. Kane added a second in half two of a 4-0 win.
Fortune was with him in the final four, as Kasper Schmeichel saved his penalty. However, the ball rebounded kindly into his path and he was able to smash home.
He scored. This is Harry Kane’s transformation. Shearer added that one goal against Germany changed his tournament and left both England and he on the brink creating history.”
“If that sounds too simple to be true, you don’t understand the obsessional nature and the way his existence is governed by a very basic metric.
Kane has not played his own way to form, he has won his way.”
Kane, who is currently 94 behind Shearer’s Premier League goals record at 260, is poised to become Shearer’s next greatest goal scorer.
Shearer could have also won more trophies than the one he won at Blackburn if he had joined the all-conquering Manchester United side managed Alex Ferguson, rather than returning home to Newcastle in 1996 to become a club legend.
He broke the world record just weeks after he won Euro 96’s Golden Boot.
Kane might also need to make a major decision in the next weeks. However, he could become a hero throughout England and not just at Tottenham.
