Will Harry Kane's England success be decisive in Ballon d'Or bid as Bayern Munich striker looks to lead Three Lions to World Cup glory?
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Updated 26/03/2026 at 09:56 GMT
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Harry Kane can't stop scoring and, as by some distance England's record goal-scorer, will be hoping to help the Three Lions end 60 years of hurt as he leads them in the 2026 World Cup in USA, Canada and Mexico this summer. On an individual level, could his goals help him claim the Ballon d'Or this year? This season, Bayern Munich's Kane has scored 51 goals for club and country to date.
Highlights: Kane hits 50th CL goal as Bayern thump Atalanta again
Video credit: TNT Sports
It’s remarkable to think that the England goalscoring record once stood for so long.
After the late Sir Bobby Charlton bagged his final goal in a friendly against Colombia in 1970 to take his tally to 49, no player who pulled on the white shirt would score as many for another 45 years.
The record was finally broken on September 8, 2015, when Wayne Rooney dispatched a penalty at Wembley against Switzerland to take his personal total for the Three Lions to 50 and top the charts for his country.
But while the fanfare from that 2-0 Euro 2016 qualifying victory would understandably surround Rooney’s milestone, earlier in that same game, however, a certain Harry Kane would open the scoring with just his third England goal.
And rather than another four-and-a-half decade wait, it would take a free-scoring Kane a mere eight years to surpass Rooney’s eventual total of 53 to become his country's leading marksman, courtesy of a penalty in a 2-1 win over Italy in March 2023.
In the three years since, Kane has added a further 24 England goals to his total - for context, Alan Shearer scored 30 international goals in his entire career - taking him to 78 and counting ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
England, and likely Kane, are back in action before that with friendly matches at Wembley against Uruguay and Japan, in which the Bayern Munich forward could yet add to his record before the tournament.
What is Harry Kane’s goal record at the World Cup?
Kane scored for the first time for his country during that same Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, netting the final goal in a 4-0 win over Lithuania.
European Championship qualifiers seem to be fertile ground for Kane, having scored 23 of his goals across three qualifying campaigns.
It’s a similar story with the World Cup, with 26 goals to boast of across qualifiers for the 2018, 2022 and now, 2026 tournaments.
Ahead of England’s jaunt to North America, Kane has contributed eight strikes to the qualifying effort.
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At tournaments themselves, he has seven goals from three Euros, and eight over two World Cups - with six coming from his Golden Boot winning campaign in 2018 as he led his country to the semi-finals.
That tournament saw him score key goals against Tunisia and Colombia, as well as his first International hat-trick in a 6-1 thrashing of Panama.
The Central American side will again be on Kane and England's hit list this summer in their group, along with Croatia, against whom they were beaten by in the final four in Russia, and Ghana.
Kane scored twice in Qatar in 2022 against Senegal in the round of 16 before a penalty against France in the quarter-final - but a second missed penalty in the match saw England suffer defeat to Les Bleus.
Harry Kane's international scoring record
| Competition | Games | Goals |
| UEFA Nations League | 23 | 6 |
| European World Cup Qualifiers | 22 | 25 |
| European Championship Qualifiers | 21 | 23 |
| European Championship Finals | 18 | 7 |
| Friendlies | 17 | 9 |
| World Cup | 11 | 8 |
| Total | 112 | 78 |
Could Harry Kane win the Ballon d’Or?
This season, Kane has scored 51 goals for club and country to date, including five for England.
The campaign has seen him hit some major milestones, including reaching 500 career goals, as well as 50 UEFA Champions League goals, becoming the first Englishman to hit those dizzy heights.
With 31 Bundesliga goals this season, Kane has seven games remaining to hunt down the record of 41 in a single campaign, currently held by Robert Lewandowski.
These continued feats have placed him in the conversation for a potential Ballon d’Or shout.
However, when asked earlier in the season, Kane himself admitted his goals alone may not be enough and is targeting team success with both Bayern and England before expecting to be considered.
"I could score 100 goals this season, but if I don’t win the Champions League or the World Cup, you’re probably not going to win the Ballon d’Or," Kane said in November.
"It’s the same with any player. You have to be winning those major trophies."
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Kane powers home 'outstanding' 50th CL goal
Video credit: TNT Sports
However, if the player himself is being coy about his chances, another former England striker in Emile Heskey insisted Kane is undoubtedly "in the discussion" as far as taking home football’s most prestigious individual award.
”He's up there isn't he, he's definitely in the discussion,” Heskey said in a recent interview with Goal. ”Especially when it comes to what he's actually done, all the goals, the goal records that he's breaking and he's definitely up there.”
Who has Harry Kane scored against for England? Complete international goalscoring record
Albania are Kane’s biggest victims with the England skipper scoring seven times against them, followed by San Marino with five.
While he certainly punishes the smaller nations, to counter accusations of "stat-padding", Kane also has respectable totals of three apiece against Italy and France, as well as four against the nation in which he currently resides, Germany.
England’s next two friendly opponents in Uruguay and Japan are yet to suffer at Kane’s hands, but that may well change depending on how Thomas Tuchel deploys his star man across those 180 minutes.
Harry Kane's scoring stats
| Opponent | Goals |
| Albania | 7 |
| San Marino | 5 |
| Bulgaria | 4 |
| Germany | 4 |
| Malta | 4 |
| Montenegro | 4 |
| France | 3 |
| Italy | 3 |
| Latvia | 3 |
| Panama | 3 |
| Ukraine | 3 |
| Andorra | 2 |
| Czech Republic | 2 |
| Denmark | 2 |
| Finland | 2 |
| Kosovo | 2 |
| Lithuania | 2 |
| North Macedonia | 2 |
| Poland | 2 |
| Scotland | 2 |
| Senegal | 2 |
| Switzerland | 2 |
| Tunisia | 2 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1 |
| Colombia | 1 |
| Croatia | 1 |
| Hungary | 1 |
| Netherlands | 1 |
| Nigeria | 1 |
| Republic of Ireland | 1 |
| Serbia | 1 |
| Slovakia | 1 |
| Slovenia | 1 |
| Turkey | 1 |
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