Harry Kane basks in golden joy of England ‘happy place’ before 100th cap

“I still remember it like it was yesterday,” Harry Kane says, and he is straight into the story, the one about his England debut, and what a story it is. March 2015, Lithuania at Wembley , on as a 71st-minute substitute for Wayne Rooney, a goalscorer 79 seconds later. “I don’t think I could have dreamed it any better,” Kane says. “It sure goes quick.”

The way Kane works, it is always on to the next thing. Train, play, score, repeat. And the next thing is a landmark which he could not have conceived of back then but one that, like so many of those linked to him, has come into view inexorably, inevitably.

Related: ‘Definitely possible’: Harry Kane eyes century of England goals before 100th cap

A century of England caps; a feat achieved by only nine other men. It will become a stunning reality for Kane at Wembley on Tuesday night against Finland, the Football Association expected to present him with a golden cap before kick-off.

Kane is in the mood to reflect – on the numbers, taking in the record goal return (66); the sheer scale of it all. He moved past Rooney to the top of the list with a penalty against Italy in March 2023, and he describes that and Lithuania as the obvious highlights.

Beyond that, there are two more, Kane says. The clinching goal against Germany in the Euro 2020 last-16 tie and the late headed winner against Tunisia in the 2018 World Cup opener . What about in terms of style? A game where he scored a really sweet one? “ Poland away [in September 2021] ,” he replies. “From 25 yards, it kind of drifted away, a good strike, probably my furthest out goal for England.”

Kane rattles through his backstory; the theme of proving people wrong, beginning with the rejection at eight by Arsenal. He mentions how “early on in my Spurs academy career I was close to being released”. Also, the difficult loans at Norwich and Leicester.

Kane was never the player, as he puts it, who “everyone thought was going to go on and do what I’ve done”.

But here he is, an England icon and the more he talks, the more the reason why is obvious. It is the crazy levels of dedication, the sacrifice, the obsession with chasing down seemingly impossible targets, with measuring himself against the best.

Kane has always looked at Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi; he peppers this conversation with references to them. When he says he watched Ronaldo score the 901st goal of his career on Sunday – the winner for Portugal against Scotland – the admiration is clear. How is Ronaldo still going strong at 39? Kane knows. He recognises the same impulses.

“Tom Brady [the NFL quarter‑back] is also a prime example of this,” Kane says. “Even when he was 42, 43 he was still having to prove people wrong and prove to himself that he was good enough. I think that until I stop playing I will have that attitude. Deep down that motivates me to be better when I’m training, when I’m doing the finishing sessions on my own, stuff I probably might not have to do still but want to do. Because I want to prove there’s room for improvement.”

Getting to the top was one thing for Kane; the harder part, he says, has been staying there. “To consistently play at a high level is really difficult and that’s why I have so much respect for Ronaldo and Messi,” he says. “To be able to do it for 15, 20 years is some mindset, some achievement.

“As an England No 9, you come up against the best strikers in the country, trying to take your place. You have to be able to set a high standard every time you are in camp, every time you train or play. I have been able to do that and I am proud of that because it is not easy.”

Kane digresses into a discussion of his craft; he has always had the instinct for goals – ever since he was six or seven – but he has needed to hone his finishing, rinse and repeat every aspect of it in training, staying behind afterwards, too.

“Even now, I’m still doing finishing sessions … you know, you’ve got more data, you can see where goals are scored from, what position in the box, so you can start to have your movements in that aspect. I really enjoy being out there, working on my finishing – it’s kind of like my happy place. It’s been that way for a long period of time.

“I feel like I sometimes watch younger players coming through … you do a finishing session where the ball comes to you, you take a touch and finish and it’s not realistic. I try and do realistic training where it’s game scenarios – bobbly ball, half a second to swivel and hit, crosses that have been whipped in at a fast tempo. Just trying to do everything at match tempo helps separate the good players and the top players.”

Ronaldo and Messi normalised the abnormal, specifically in terms of consistent goal-per-game or better ratios and Kane has followed their lead. If he looked laboured at Euro 2024, it says plenty about him that he still scored three times to share the tournament’s Golden Boot. So what next? Kane makes it plain that he feels as quick and sharp as ever.

“I am conscious of the summer and the talk about myself physically,” he says. “As a nation and as media or pundits, we were trying to find a reason why we weren’t playing as well as we had in other tournaments. Maybe my form took the brunt of that.

“But in the tournament I felt good. As a team we did not quite click. If we talk honestly, quite a few of the lads did not perform as well as at other tournaments. At 31, I am in a good place mentally and physically and some of the players ahead of me, like Ronaldo, have helped prove to me I can be at this level for a long time.”