Wayne Rooney was quick to praise Harry Kane after breaking his own England goalscoring record, but revealed he ‘knew’ the Tottenham star would do so after his fourth cap.
Rooney held the previous record of 53, but after Kane’s historic 54th goal against Italy, the retired striker said it was clear his former team-mate would top his tally early on.
Kane’s record proved vital as England’s 10 men beat off a late charge by Italy, including a goal from Argentina-born Mateo Retegui to win 2-1 in Napoli, with Declan Rice scoring the opener for the Three Lions.
However, Rooney was one of the first to congratulate Kane on his impressive achievement, and as well as admitting he “knew he could do it”, the DC United manager predicted that no one would beat the England captain’s final tally.
Rooney recounts that the night he broke the previous record of 49 goals, he told his teammates, including a young Kane, that he anticipated one of his younger colleagues would one day top his own tally.
Harry Kane was one of the first to congratulate Wayne Rooney the night he broke Bobby Charlton’s previous record
Kane scored from the spot against Italy to help England to a 2-1 away win
“Harry had scored just three England goals at the time, but I said those words because I knew I could do it,” Rooney wrote in his column for The times.
“Even then, with only four caps to his credit, he knew he could become England’s top scorer if he kept going as he was and wanted to cheer him on.”
Rooney was clearly a very early admirer of Kane’s talent, with the Spurs star himself admitting that the former record holder predicted the feat he would achieve on Thursday early in his international career.
“I was in the field when Wayne broke the record. I know what it meant to him and I was very proud of him,” he told Channel 4.
“I remember when I kicked him for breaking the record, he said he would give it back to me one day. A special man.
Kane’s record for England is remarkable, scoring his 54th goal in just 81 games and having scored 46 of them as his country’s captain.
The Tottenham star scored just 80 seconds on his debut, against Lithuania in 2015, and holds the record for most England goals in a calendar year (16), and 12 goals in major tournaments, including the World Cup Golden Boot 2018.
He won the Golden Boot at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, when England finished fourth.
Kane made his England debut in 2015 as a substitute for Rooney against Lithuania
The Tottenham striker sent Gianluigi Donnarumma down the wrong path to become England’s all-time top scorer.
And at just 29, Kane still has several years to go leading England’s line, and will surely go on to reach 100 caps for his country, leaving him with every chance of putting the next goalscoring record in an almost unreachable place.
“Knowing Harry, it’s not something that goes to his head,” Rooney added. He will carry on and, in fact, I think when he stops playing he will leave the England record in a place where it will be very difficult for someone else to break it.
He wants to be like Poland’s Robert Lewandowski, a goal-scoring machine who’s still on top in his late thirties, and he’s got everything he needs to make it happen. I think Harry will end up with an England goal tally well into the 70s.
Rooney’s early predictions of Kane’s international future were not unfounded, coming halfway through his breakout season with Tottenham.
He scored 21 Premier League goals in 2014-15 for Spurs, and while Rooney says there were initial doubts about whether he could maintain that form, he admits those doubts were quickly put to rest in his international call-up.
The England legend revealed that Kane was almost flawless with his shooting in training, comparing his technique to Chelsea’s record goalscorer Frank Lampard, describing him as a natural finisher.
In addition to Lampard, Rooney compared the striker to fellow legends Francesco Totti, as a result of his deeper role, and Steven Gerrard, due to the example he sets through his performances.
Kane surpasses England legends Rooney, Sir Bobby Charlton and Gary Lineker to become England’s all-time top goalscorer, as seen in our chart created by sofascore.es
Rooney compared Kane’s ‘selfishness’ in front of goal to that of his former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo
But perhaps the highest praise he placed on the 29-year-old was drawn from an early training session Rooney witnessed with England, comparing him to Thursday’s record-breaking teammate Cristiano Ronaldo.
The former captain described Kane’s ‘selfishness’ in front of goal at a young age, shooting from all angles inside the box, even from unlikely angles, in the style of the Portugal legend.
“The only other person I’ve seen like that is Cristiano Ronaldo and both he and Harry have what you’d call a good kind of egoism, an obsession with goals that’s built into it. It’s important to their success.
Kane will have the chance to extend his record to 55 goals and perhaps even more against Ukraine on Sunday, when the Three Lions are next in action at Wembley in their second Euro 2024 qualifier.