Harry Kane relishing chance to become England’s most-capped player

Harry Kane, England’s all-time top scorer with 85 goals, is four short of Peter Shilton’s haul and could match the goalkeeper’s tally across a quartet of Nations League fixtures.

Updated : Sep 24, 2026 20:09 IST , CHENNAI - 3 MINS READ

Harry Kane is one of only 10 men to have reached a century of caps for England. | Photo Credit: AFP

Harry Kane is on course to equal Peter Shilton’s England record of 125 caps within the next fortnight but says he is puzzled why the national-team appearance mark is not higher.

Kane, England’s all-time top scorer with 85 goals, is four short of Shilton’s haul and could match the goalkeeper’s tally across a quartet of Nations League fixtures against Spain, Croatia and the Czech Republic (twice).

“Growing up, the dream was just to play for England and being most capped was never even in my mind at that stage,” said Kane.

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“The journey has been incredible to this stage, and we have achieved so much as a group and personally achieved so much and been in finals, taking the England team to a level that it hasn’t been for a long, long time.”

“So, to be four away from the all-time is just incredible and hopefully I am able to play the four games and then be back in November and be able to break it.”

Kane is one of only 10 men to have reached a century of caps for England, while Cristiano Ronaldo has played a world-record 233 times for Portugal and contemporaries Lionel Messi (Argentina) and Luka Modric (Croatia) have also passed 200 internationals.

Kane’s former Tottenham teammates Christian Eriksen, Jan Vertonghen and Ivan Perisic are among several modern players to have featured in more than 150 internationals.

Despite his prolific scoring, a major tournament win remains the missing piece of Harry Kane’s England career. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

“It makes you wonder why (not) as well with England,” added Kane.

“Is it a cultural thing? Is it a mentality thing? Is it maybe the pressure from the outside?”

“Why have some of our great England players not reached that 160, 170, 180 (caps) like some of the other nations?”

“From my point of view, it will be an honour but ultimately there is still a long way to go and still hopefully a lot more caps I can achieve.”

Despite his prolific scoring, a major tournament win remains the missing piece of Kane’s England career, with a home Euros in two years’ time potentially offering his final chance.

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He is targeting Saturday’s clash against world champions Spain at Wembley as a chance to set a marker ahead of the Nations League campaign.

“Look, we’re playing the reigning European champions, the reigning world champions, so it doesn’t get any tougher in terms of who we’re going to face,” he added.

“But ultimately if we want to be Nations League champions, European champions in a couple years, we’re going to have to beat teams like Spain and Croatia and the bigger nations. It’s good for us to test ourselves, test the group.”