Harry Kane - Best English striker ever?

Just a shame he's never played in a major final for England.

And Arsenal let him go

Shearer or Wright in my lifetime, Kane never won a meaningful trophy and never turned up for a major final.

If I wanted one striker from history to score a couple against a team of unfit quadriplegics then Kane would be top of my list. If it was against some of the best defenders around, I may have to consider someone else.

May 17, 2026 -- 11:47AM, Aspro wrote:

And Arsenal let him go

That provided the hunger, put fire in his belly.

You should be thanking us.

May 17, 2026 -- 11:55AM, Susquehanna wrote:

Shearer or Wright in my lifetime, Kane never won a meaningful trophy and never turned up for a major final.

Are you serious?

Both of those were just box players.

Kane has got far more to his game than just a box striker.

Always hard to say the best, as football has changed. In his time Jimmy Greaves was decent.

But playing as a 6 or an 8 is nothing to do with being a striker, which is the question.

Ian Wright? You must be an Arsenal fan?

Kane has been magnificent. A true pro off the pitch too.

As an all round player, probably Kane, but as a striker, the number 9 role, then there's loads of them who were equally top drawer, Michael Owen at his best, people forget how good he was, so good he won the Balon Do'r!, I don't think Kane has ever won it. There was Fowler, Sheringham, Andy Cole, all goal machines.

May 17, 2026 -- 4:46PM, s.kenbo wrote:

Ian Wright? You must be an Arsenal fan? Kane has been magnificent. A true pro off the pitch too.

Aye.
I'm a gooner & I wouldn't put Wrighty in the same class as Kane.

Lineker was a great finisher

If you want all round then Shearer is up there

A provider then Peter beardsley

Undoubtedly Kane is very good, top drawer, but he's not
really done it under pressure at top level.

Win world Cup, or champions league and we can look again.

Yep Lineker was a top striker for us , did anyone else score in Italia 90.

Apart from platt ,, wrighty was unlucky that Shearer was about  ..wrightys from my area , loved by most, says it how it is

Wrighty was brilliant for Arsenal. As Stringy says, he was unlucky to be up against Shearer for the striker role.

How many goals has harry scored without falling to the ground after scoring,,,

His conversion rate this season is 30%.  That's monstrous.  Haaland's is 21%.  And Kane is not just a number 9.  He's an 8/9/10 all rolled into one.  Haaland is just a 9

For me he's England's best striker for the last 50 years.  And I wouldn't go back further than that anyway, as sport didn't become really professional until the 70s,  I'd say he's England's best player over that period (not by a mile) because of his longevity and conistency.  At his best Gascoigne was England's greatest talent over those 50 years, but alas we didn't get enough of it.  He's no Maradonna Messi or Ronaldo, but then those three are on a different level to everyone else.

And he's a team player without a massive ego.  That's rare amongst top players.

Changing the subject to world player I'd rate Messi 1 Maradonna 2 and Ronaldo 3.  Maradonna the greatest talent at his best but Messi had almost as much talent and was better for far longer.  Ronaldo not as much talent as either of the other two but a great athlete and longevity like Messi.  His ego a problem for me.  Puts himself before the team always.

Typically in football you score 1 goal every 9 or 10 shots.  Kane is 3 out of 10 in the BL this season.  Three times the average over a huge sample.  Admittedly he takes their pens but re pens he is 24 out of 24 in the BL over 3 seasons and has a better penalty record than any other elite striker (I think)

May 18, 2026 -- 8:48AM, CLYDEBANK29 wrote:

His conversion rate this season is 30%.

Yep, Kane is like 3 players in one.

You're talking about him as an overall player which is a whole other topic. As a pure striker which is the original question, then he is not better than all those aforementioned English strikers of the past. Shearer was top drawer, so was the likes of Fowler and Andy Cole in terms of pure finishing and positional awareness. Owen too, didn't go missing in big finals either.

Kane's Bundesliga conversion rate is a silly strawman argument that means nothing, it's a far weaker league than the Premier League, what do you think prime Shearer, Owen, Wright, Fowler etc conversion rate would be if they were playing up top for Bayern Munich? especially if they were also on pens.

There is a reason why he's just scored more than a goal a game for the 2nd time in 3 seasons in the Bundesliga in his 30's, yet nobody of any nationality at any club has ever done that in the Premier League, Lewandowski scored 41 goals in one season in Germany a few years ago, it's weak competition. They've won 13 of the last 14 titles for a reason, there's nobody really to challenge them.

Shearer was good, Owen was good for a short time, but you are taking us as fools if you think the others are remotely close to Kane and neither had a long top class career.  Kane got to two Euros final a WC SF and a QF.  Owen and Shearer achieved next to nothing with England by comparison

Andy Cole 1 goal for England FFS.  121 goals in 275 games playing for the champions.  Kane 280 in 435 playing for Spurs!  Fowler scored 30 goals a season for only 3 years .  Other than that he never managed 20.  Kane has hit 24 club goals minimum every season for 12 years on the trot.  Owen 158 in 297 for Liverpool and finished as a top striker at 26.

Kane's competition is only Shearer, Lineker, Rooney and Keegan (if you classify Keegan as a striker)  The others aren't in the conversation

How can you in one breath say I'm taking you for fools when in the other, you're being deliberately deceptive by comparing goal conversion rates between strikers from two completely different leagues, one being much stronger than the other, and then not only do you ignore it when you're pulled up on it, you then double down and start fattening up Kane's case again using his international record in which he won nothing but enjoyed 3 cakewalk draws to both Euro finals and the WC semi, incidentally forgetting bottling the penalty v France at the Qatar World Cup. He won the Goldon boot in Russia after scoring 4 penalties and was a passenger at Euro 2024.

The question is, who is England's best ever striker, not all round player, not who has the best international record and not comparing their records based on a whole array on differing circumstances and conditions.

Kane is a great striker, but he's not the stand out best ever English striker, in my lifetime I'd take Shearer up top, if you really want a 6, 8, 9 and 10 in rolled into one then OK, but that's not the original question.

He watches too much NFL, thinks he's some kinda of quarter back, always dropping deep, it takes away from what more he can give up front anyway.

Kane may have got to two euro finals a world cup semi not to mention champions league finals and club semi finals but failed to turn up in any of them you also never saw shearer linekar and owen dropping back to the edge of there own box thereby slowing everything down thinking he’s a kid in a playground until he does it when it matters then maybe he can be classed as a great not now

Kane may have got to two euro finals a world cup semi not to mention champions league finals and club semi finals but failed to turn up in any of them you also never saw shearer linekar and owen dropping back to the edge of there own box thereby slowing everything down thinking he’s a kid in a playground until he does it when it matters then maybe he can be classed as a great not now

Kane's good, but Shearer was miles better. Kane's stats are just massively inflated by the far higher number of international games, most of which are against dross.

This season England have got 10 games from September till the start of the World Cup. 30 years ago that figure was 6. It was 5 ten years before that.

He's excelled at scoring goals against the dregs of the international world. His records ok against the top teams is decent but he's at his best when he's marked by a plumber from the third world.


And it's the same in Germany. The Bundesliga is crap lately. It's a one horse town. Look at the state of those "hugely promising" Bundesliga players who cost Premier League teams a fortune last summer. They're binmen.



I think those old enough would generally say Jimmy Greaves was an incredible striker. I personally think Shearer was incredibly complete and had a great career, even if he never spent time at a top tier club, and continued to be a star after a couple of really bad injuries. Talking of whicj, I'll always think the most naturally gifted English striker was Robbie Fowler. He could do anything, saw chances a second before everyone else and had the touch of an Argie #10. But he got two bad knee injuries and was never near the same.

Kane's good, but Shearer was miles better. Kane's stats are just massively inflated by the far higher number of international games, most of which are against dross.

This season England have got 10 games from September till the start of the World Cup. 30 years ago that figure was 6. It was 5 ten years before that.

He's excelled at scoring goals against the dregs of the international world. His records ok against the top teams is decent but he's at his best when he's marked by a plumber from the third world.


And it's the same in Germany. The Bundesliga is cr@p lately. It's a one horse town. Look at the state of those "hugely promising" Bundesliga players who cost Premier League teams a fortune last summer. They're binmen.



I think those old enough would generally say Jimmy Greaves was an incredible striker. I personally think Shearer was incredibly complete and had a great career, even if he never spent time at a top tier club, and continued to be a star after a couple of really bad injuries. Talking of whicj, I'll always think the most naturally gifted English striker was Robbie Fowler. He could do anything, saw chances a second before everyone else and had the touch of an Argie #10. But he got two bad knee injuries and was never near the same.

Kane has score 9 international goals (and counting) against Tier 1 nations.  Shearer 5

Kane has played nearly FIFTY more times for England than Shearer, you can't keep using statistics that are misleading.

Kane is right up there with the best English strikers imo, but not because he's banged in 100 goals in the mickey mouse league scored a boat load of England goals against door to door salesman from Andorra, San Marino bricklayers or Goat herders from Panama, but because of his finishing ability, vision and awareness, hence a lot of assists as well. It comes down to preference, I think Shearer who never really deviated away from his number 9 role, would have scored a lot more goals if he was surrounded at club level by the quality Bayern have, but he went to Newcastle instead of Man United.

Lineker has 9.  Personally I'd have Lineker 2nd, not Shearer. He also won the GB and was runner up in the Ballon D'or.  Shearer would be 4 on my list Rooney 5.  I'd say Keegan and Lineker have the biggest claims.  Keegan won the Ballon Do'r twice, and the European Cup, the Bundesliga and The 1st Division.  Never won feck all with England though and only 3 goals against tier 1 nations

When Shearer was playing the PL was not the top league in Europe.

May 18, 2026 -- 11:45AM, CLYDEBANK29 wrote:

Kane has score 9 international goals (and counting) against Tier 1 nations.

Again, not that that stat's the be all and end all, but in how many appearances?

I don't know PP, but it would be wrong to say he only scores against minnows.  He scored in Bayern's last 7 CL matches and I believe against PSG he scored with his only shot.  Yes he has exceptional players around him at Bayern.  But he still scored a minimum of 24 goals for Spurs 9 years on the trot when he certainly didn't.  Just look have they've flopped since he's left

I'm not saying Kane's bad. Just think Shearer was better, and also that Fowler had more ability. And we should really mention Rooney too. Every players has to be viewed in context. Shearer was only briefly part of a good England team. They didn't qualify for 94 and 98 was over quickly enough. But then the amount of top class strikers around at that time was ridiculous.


Kane's probably the opposite. Over a ten-year period the England team has never been as good as it has been with him. And while it's been a good team he's had next to no competition for his shirt. And obviously the number of international games has ballooned, particularly against mediocre teams just to fill up the calendar. While the likes of Man Utd would be pulling their top players out of those squads, Kane was always available.

Club careers were maybe fairly similar. Both at 2nd-tier teams mostly, scored lots of goals but only briefly competed for the big honours. I imagine in his heart, Shearer wishes he'd chosen differently. Kane's swansong in Germany has brought those trophies, but the Bundesliga is awful at the minute. Bayern have won the league easing off by double digits for the last few years, as the other teams can't afford to keep hold of their talent. It's more akin to the French league than the English one.

purely as a striker i think shearer is better, just imagine how mufc would have done if he had been there for a decade, it would have been unbearable. i really admire the fact that he wanted to try and win things with his home town team.

i admire kane lots, his link up play and reading of the game is superb. dont forget bayern didnt win the league in his first season there so they havent had it completely their own way. haaland has been very good, the exception to the rule for bundesliga players who came here recently.

i was a big fowler fan, he had a very good career at one stage i thought he would be the goat but it wasnt to be.

Lots of really good strikers, but who had best career
isn't always who was best striker.

And of course most of these lads are just as good as
their supply line.

Prime Rooney, the season after Ronaldo left man u
had great figures, but he was better striker alongside Ronaldo.

Michael Owen rinsed Kane for moving to Bayern, likened it to going to Scotland.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cWxfEQYiexQ

Only thing is, Kane jonahed Bayern in his first season!

Worth noting that when Shearer played in CL for Blackburn, they didn't qualify out of a group including (from memory) Spartak Moscow, Rosenborg and Legia Warsaw.  The PL then was worse than the BL now.  Kane has played in the PL at it's peak.  His goals per game in the PL aren't as good as Kane's and he doesn't contribute as an 8 or a 10.  I'd have Lineker and Keegan ahead of Shearer personally.  But 4th best over 50 years is still very very good

Shearer scored 30ish goals 95/96 as Blackburn finnished
outside top 4.

Going on to top score at euro 96,

They were hopeless in champs league,

Shearer would sign for newcastle soon after, and
suffer horrendous injuries.

England/Germany were very similar in strength back in 95/96 if co-efficiency was anything to go by, now England miles ahead. Premier League also had to play catch up after being banned for 5 years from playing in Europe, so really were probably stronger as if you have no clubs in Europe for that long, it'd take a while to get the co-efficiency back to where it should be. Nicolas Jackson could have led the line for Bayern this season in every game and they'd still have won the Bundesliga, 13 from 14 titles tells you it is a weak farmers league.

May 18, 2026 -- 7:01PM, CLYDEBANK29 wrote:

Worth noting that when Shearer played in CL for Blackburn, they didn't qualify out of a group including (from memory) Spartak Moscow, Rosenborg and Legia Warsaw.

Yeah, but my point was that Bayern are an elite team surrounded by dross. Blackburn of that time were just one of a bunch of mediocre teams. Scoring 30 goals against a bunch of teams that are nearly as good as you is perhaps a better achievement than scoring 40 when the gulf between you and the opposition is vast.

Kane's goals per game ratio is far better than Shearer's, both for club and country. Plus he's a better all round player. Drops deep and provides defence splitting passes for the runners in behind.

Also got to two finals with England and a semi final. Shearer got to one semi and that was only because Spain had about three onside goals chalked off in the quarter final.

To avoid bias I have not contributed to this thread, aside from a little banter with Wes. I will add though that all of the strikers mentioned have been good strikers and worthy of consideration in this debate, which should make England proud that they have produced such talent over the years. Where's the next bunch coming from I wonder?

Yes, I believe so. He's not recognised by some diehards. I do not know why. He's performed for his club, Spurs, and country repeatedly. He's confounded his critics since going to Bayern Munich; he's overachieved there. This is not an overstatement; his goals at club level and European competitions speak volume.

I hope he stays injury-free and continues to perform at this level. Mr Kane is modest, unassuming, approachable and down to earth. He's also a very good footballer!

If you can start just 25 Bundesliga games from max 34 games and go on to score 36 goals, you know it's a weak league, someone on talksport this morning said people close to Kane have said he's surprised how easy he's found it to score over there, that's because most of the clubs are Championship level.

The most amount of goals scored in a 38 game Premier League season is 36, that's happened once in it's history, next on the list is Salah with 32.

That's not to say that if you had put Kane in the Man City treble winning team, that he couldn't have scored 36 goals that season, because I think he could of. But using Bundesliga stats, where a few years ago Lewandowski scored 41 goals in a season, to elevate someone's standing in the game, is just silly.

He has to turn up in a big final, not enjoy easy draws to finals that he's had with England, then losing to the first half decent team. If he wins the World Cup and is a key player, he'll probably win the Balon D'or, then nobody would ever question him. But realistically, England will lose to France in the quarters again.

Kane might have improved for the boost in confidence scoring
more consistently brings, we shall see at World Cup.

Looking at Ronaldo at man utd, he hit 30+ goals in 07/08 but was sub 20
in 06/07 then again in 08/09 and 09/10.. It's a tough league.

Ruud van nistelrooy was 20+ 4 of his 5 seasons at man utd
but peaked at 25, he really was a top striker, and those 2
set a bar worthy of comparison...

Van persie hit 30 at arsenal and 26 at man utd back to back
but was sub 20 rest of time, 1 x 18, next best 12.

Only 2 seasons ago the BL got more coefficient points than the PL.  Freiburg have made the EL final.  It's not that weak a league, though it is clearly weaker than the PL.  That's not by any means a defining point.  Kane's PL record in a much stronger PL is better than Shearer's.  Probably Spurs were a generally weaker team compared to their opponents than Blackburn and Newcastle were to their's.  The only mitigating factor is that goal expectancy generally has increased over that 20-30 year time frame.

Plus I agree with all the points Clarky made

Shearer was a decent player when not up top.

I'd guess he created more goals for himself than most strikers
and was an excellent passer, crosser when opportunity arose.

But strikers have different roles in different teams

I suspect a trophy might have been won had Shearer been
available to Southgate.

Kane dropping deep just encourages teams and allows
them to press us back, and he then lacks the pace to hurt
them.

Of course it's a weak league, that's why Lewandowski was able to score 41 league goals in 29 league games, and why Kane has twice scored 36 goals in 32 matches and 31 matches respectively, yet nobody has ever score more than 36 goals in 38 Premier League games, Salah next on 32 from 38. And Kane and Lewandowski both achieved their feat in their 30's.

And it's also why Bayern have won 13 league titles from the last 14 seasons, they outspend all the other German clubs on wages and they can't compete.

Bayern also the only German club to have won the CL in nearly 30 years, there's been 4 different English clubs to have won it during that time, maybe 5 if Arsenal win it but unlikely that happens. Same in Europa League, since Germany football peaked in 97 when Shalke won the UEFA cup in the same year Dortmund won the CL, there's been 4 different English winners, 1 German. The Premier League has also had a boat load more finalists in both comps.

Kane is a great player, but there's far too much recency bias these days, people forget how good players were from the past. I think Shearer had a remarkable goals to game ratio considering the terrible injuries he had to come back from.

Also gotta remember Freiburg got through after turning round a first leg defeat when Braga had a man sent off in the 7th minute. Not that a knock out comp should ever really be used as a strong measure of quality anyway.

The UEFA coefficients tell you how strong the league is.  It's not rocket science.  It's a weaker league than the PL but it's not a weak league.  There are over 50 leagues in Europa and it's probably never been out of the top 4 for nearly 50 years.  That the PL is the top league in Europe (and much stronger than it was in Shearer's age) is only to Kane's credit and strengthens his argument.

Going to Germany, playing for the most dominant club that's now won 13 of the last 14 Bundesliga titles, and racking up a goals to game ratio that could never be achieved in the Premier League, doesn't strengthen his argument, how many goals do you think a Rooney or Shearer would have scored over there?

Until Kane turns up in a big final, a Champions League (if he ever gets there with Bayern) or a World Cup final, then he's never going to be looked at as a real great, winning the Bundesliga doesn't cut it. Shearer at least won the Premier League off of the back of a strong Man United team winning the two previous titles, then they went onto win the 2 after Blackburn's win. Kane has done what Thierry did at Barca, piggy backing off of other teams success, they would have won the Bundesliga titles without him and with some other half decent striker in place.

May 19, 2026 -- 3:31PM, CLYDEBANK29 wrote:

The UEFA coefficients tell you how strong the league is.

I don't think the overall coefficient is that good a guide when one team is skewing it so much. Same as PSG and France. Germany is just behind Spain this season, but a R Madrid v B Dortmund match up would be priced up one-sided.


It's not that it's necessarily a weak league (though I think it's far weaker than it has been in recent years) it's that the gulf between Bayern and the rest is massive. PSG and their players are earning plaudits for their exploits in Europe. The Georgian lad could probably be considered the best player in the world right now. And that's really based on CL games. No one would look twice at them just based on winning Ligue 1 every year, because look at the finances, of course they'll win the league every year.

Look at Ronaldo at man utd going to Spain which is pretty much on par with germany

Lots of evidence suggests kane is an excellent striker
but maybe none that's he's significantly better, nor significantly inferior to some
other top English strikers,

I agree with the OP, Kane is simply the best English striker ever, no arguments.

Jimmy Greaves
Total Career Club Goals 422 goals in 602 appearances
First Division Top Scorer 6 seasons (an all-time record)
44 goals in 57 caps for England

If Harry Kane had played in this era he would have spent half of it in a horizontal position or the hospital.

Cloughie 0.92 goals per match - highest in league history .(I know , not top flight but he was bloody sharp ) .

Lineker was the best.
He did it at the top level.

Shearer was better than kane, lineker also. But jimmy greaves was wow.

Bayern not playing against Stuttgart in cup final, out nothing Hazza has scored 2 goals so far. 8 mins and inj time left.

Hat trick.

Good send off for Kane.

Keep saying - the guy is a fkn footballing terrorist.

^ to Alien & Clydebank re Harry

bobby charlton though not really a striker still the best england ever produced, scored in the 66 world cup important goals , 2 winning goals in the semi final, another 2 for man utd in european cup final, 49 goals in 100 odd caps , hardly ever took penalties, , bobby was a winner, scored and created against the major opponents for club and country ,

Kane is by far the best

he cannot imo be called the best until he scores or really performs on the really big stage, never has, and please dont say he scored a hatrick in the german cup final as a big match

He was joint top scorer at the last Euros...

3 goals in 7 games, including a pelanty,

To be fair to Kane, he hasn't committed, and got away with even after dying, the stuff Charlton did.

'3 goals in 7 games, including a pelanty'

If he was joint top scorer the 'world class' players didn't do any better

Cody Gakpo, Harry Kane, Jamal Musiala, Georges Mikautadze, Dani Olmo and Ivan Schranz all finished on 3 goals.

Not sure if you think being on par with them equates
to world class, or if they are all world class, or if
3 goals in 7 games, playing 6 easy games, apparently,
has any real significance at all.

World class and Euros arent the same.Theres a clue there.

ashbourne is Harry Kane's dad - NAP

I would say his mother.

'World class and Euros arent the same.Theres a clue there'

So European players can't be world class?

Do all world class players play in euros?

'ashbourne is Harry Kane's dad' His wife :)

Nostalgia - when Jack Wilshere was the greatest England player.