Erling Haaland is a physical monster who has pace and can finish. Vinicius is small but supremely destructive with his pace and skill. Ousmane Dembele and Kylian Mbappe are deadly creators and scorers. Harry Kane is arguably the world’s best out-and-out finishing centre-forward in the mould of a long line of England legend predecessors such as Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan, Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Andy Cole, Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler and Wayne Rooney.
He has surpassed many of them. Like those great strikers, it is his positioning, supreme finishing and intelligence in the box that make Kane, even at 32, the world’s deadliest finisher for Bayern Munich, where he has scored at almost a goal a game (140 in 145 matches since moving there from Tottenham Hotspur in 2023), and England (78 in 112).
He has 447 goals in 659 career club games, making for a superb two goals per three matches ratio. He has statistically grown deadlier in Germany than even in his Spurs days (280 in 435). He would have broken Shearer’s all-time EPL scoring record (260) if he had stayed there; Kane is second on 213.
For his age, Kane remains undiminished — in fact, he’s at his peak. His 2025-2026 season statistics are a marvel. He is the Bundesliga’s top scorer with 33 goals, 14 ahead of Deniz Undav in second (19), helping Bayern to their second title in a row this campaign. He has a staggering 55 goals in 49 appearances in all competitions and is the red-hot favourite to win the European Golden Shoe. Fourteen of his goals came in the Uefa Champions League (he is second to Mbappe’s 15 this season), where Kane equalled Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2012-2013 record of scoring in six consecutive knockout-stage matches. Those statistics verge on the ridiculous.
Kane won the golden boot (six goals) as England finished fourth at the Russia 2018 World Cup. To say he is the fulcrum of Thomas Tuchel’s hugely promising England in 2026 is an understatement.
- Age: 32
- Club: Bayern Munich
- Previous clubs: Leyton Orient (loan), Millwall (loan), Norwich City (loan), Leicester City (loan), Tottenham Hotspur
- Previous World Cups: 2018 (fourth place), 2022 (quarterfinals)
- International caps (goals): 112 (78)
- Club honours (wins only): Bayern Munich: Bundesliga (2) 2024–2025, 2025–2026; Franz Beckenbauer Supercup (1) 2025
- International honours: England: UEFA European Championship runner-up (2) 2020, 2024; UEFA Nations League third place (1) 2018–2019
• TimesLIVE, Sowetan, The Herald and Daily Dispatch will run a series profiling the STARS OF THE 2026 WORLD CUP every Friday until the tournament kickoff on June 11. There will be a GROUP PROFILE every Tuesday.
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