According to Gareth Southgate, it is certain that Harry Kane will surpass England’s all-time goalscoring record, and he believes that Kane has overcome his penalty struggles
Gareth Southgate, the England manager, thinks that Harry Kane has moved on from his World Cup disappointment.
During the quarter-final match against France in Qatar, Kane missed a crucial penalty, leading to England’s exit from the tournament. Had he scored the penalty, Kane would have broken Wayne Rooney’s international goal-scoring record and potentially guided England into the semi-finals.
However, Kane missed the penalty by shooting over the bar, and the Three Lions lost 2-1.
Although Harry Kane suffered penalty heartache during the World Cup, he is not alone in this regard among England players.
In the Euro 2020 final against Italy, Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford, and Jadon Sancho all missed their penalties during the shootout defeat at Wembley. Furthermore, England manager Gareth Southgate himself missed a penalty in the team’s semi-final loss to Germany at Euro 1996.
Southgate assured that Kane will overcome penalty heartache
Despite the history of penalty misses, Southgate is confident that this will not impede Kane’s progress, and he believes that Kane has the potential to become one of the all-time greats.
“We’ve seen that with his performances and goals for his club that he has put it behind him,” he said.
“He knows he’s going to have added motivation tomorrow [Wednesday] night to come back and show everybody what he is about again in an England shirt. For us that is a good position.
“It’s always difficult to compare across ages, there a lot who I didn’t see because I wasn’t alive. But because of his goalscoring alone, that puts him in the upper echelons of that group.
“He provides so much more for the team than that, his quality of passing, his vision, his touch, he’s an outstanding player and we’re very fortunate to have him.”
Declan Rice believes that Harry Kane deserves to become England’s leading goalscorer, which is highly likely to happen as he is currently tied with Wayne Rooney on 53 goals for the Three Lions.
“I think you can see every time he scores a goal how much it means to him. Every goal, every training session, everything he does is at such a high level,” the midfielder added.
“If he does break the record tomorrow, it will be thoroughly deserved. He is a real leader and a lot of us will be very happy for him if he breaks the record tomorrow night.”
