He was England’s top scorer when they reached the final of the delayed Euro 2020 tournament with four goals in seven games, although the 2022 World Cup ended in disappointment as Kane missed a penalty in the 2-1 defeat by France in the quarter-final in Qatar.
Kane, by his own standards, had a disappointing Euro 2024, looking so jaded there was a clamour for England’s captain to be replaced by Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins.
He was substituted in every one of England’s knockout matches, including after only 61 minutes of the final loss to Spain in Berlin – and yet still finished as the tournament’s joint top scorer with three goals from seven games.
Kane is England’s highest goalscorer in major tournaments, with 15 goals from 29 games. This total puts him fifth, when ranking combined European Championship and World Cup goals, behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Germany trio Miroslav Klose, Gerd Muller and Jurgen Klinsmann.
So has his stellar contribution been underappreciated?
Sutton says: “Anybody who has played either with or against him, raves about him.
“If people do not give him the credit he deserves, it may be because he’s been England’s main man for so long. People are sometimes there to chop you down.
“England players get judged on major tournaments and if they don’t win it the criticism comes, with the high-profile captain usually first in that firing line.
“You can have rivalries, tribalism and social media, and there will be people who put the boot in, but you won’t get anyone who has played the game to a reasonable level having any doubts about him. And I think most fair-minded supporters recognise what a player Harry Kane is.”
Sutton added: “He has never been blessed with great pace but the way his brain works is fantastic. He’s not just a phenomenal goalscorer. He has the ability to drop deep to influence games, showing wonderful awareness, weight of passing, vision.”
Former England defender Matthew Upson, who played against Kane and watches him regularly as a BBC Radio 5 Live pundit, says: “The phrase ‘you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone’ springs to mind with Harry.
“I also think what plays into that is Kane’s profile. For the scale of what he does, I think he keeps his profile quite low.
“He is quite understated in the way he operates, being the figure he is in world football.
“Other players are hitting numbers that are not quite as good as his, but you see them making more of a song and dance about what they are doing than he does.”
