Harry Kane

Harry Kane has been at the centre of England's attack since 2015, and as of 2026 he is the national team's captain and its record goalscorer. He grew up a short trip from Tottenham's ground, named Teddy Sheringham as his childhood idol, and spent 14 years with Spurs before Bayern Munich signed him in 2023 for a fee no Bundesliga club had paid before. His rise was not obvious. Arsenal released him after one season as a boy because, according to their academy chief Liam Brady, he was "a bit chubby" and not "very athletic". At Tottenham he started out in midfield, and coaches valued his technique and hunger to improve more than any physical gifts. Loans at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester followed, and a Talksport profile in early 2013 still called him weak in the air. Then came a late winner against Aston Villa in 2014, a goal Mauricio Pochettino later said saved him from the sack, and Kane was a starter from then on. Former Tottenham manager David Pleat called him an "old-fashioned traditional centre-forward". Les Ferdinand, who coached him in the under-21s, compared his movement to Sheringham's and the power and accuracy of his shooting to Alan Shearer's. Yet he is far more than a finisher. He drops deep, shields the ball with his back to goal and slides passes into runners. In 2020–21 he led the Premier League in both goals and assists, and his partnership with Son Heung-min set a single-season league record for goal combinations. Sam McGuire of Opta Sports called him "the most creative number 9 in the world." Danny Murphy said he was "struggling to see a weakness in the lad's game", but the usual answer has been speed. Critics noted a lack of real pace and, early on, a limited aerial game. The heading improved with time; his extra-time header against Slovakia at Euro 2024 settled a knockout tie. He is tall and strong and uses his body cleverly, sometimes too cleverly: from 2020 he drew criticism for backing into defenders jumping for headers, which Martin Keown called dangerous and Gary Cahill called clever, experienced play. He also works hard without the ball and is a dependable penalty taker, though his miss in the 2022 World Cup quarter-final came in a 2–1 defeat to France. For most of his career the medals did not follow the goals. Tottenham lost the 2019 Champions League final, and England lost two Euro finals. Germany changed that. After a debut season that brought a European Golden Shoe, he won the Bundesliga in 2024–25 and was named its Player of the Season, then added a domestic double in 2025–26 with a hat-trick in the DFB-Pokal final. That summer he helped England to third place at the World Cup, their best finish since 1966; as of October 2026 he is England's joint most-capped player.