Harry Kane: Now I want 100 goals to go with my 100 England caps

England captain remains motivated to prove his doubters wrong and says he can stay playing at the top level ‘for a long time’

Harry Kane says he wants to follow winning his 100th cap for England by scoring 100 goals for his country.
The 31-year-old will on Tuesday night become only the 10th player to reach a century of appearances for England – and the second-youngest after Wayne Rooney – and said he was inspired to emulate the longevity of Cristiano Ronaldo, who is still playing at 39.
Kane will captain England in the Nations League against Finland at Wembley aiming to add to his 66 goals – 13 more than the previous record set by Rooney – and suggested he could reach 100. At his present scoring rate (two in three), Kane needs 51 more caps, including against Finland, and obviously to surpass goalkeeper Peter Shilton’s England appearance record of 125, to reach his century of goals.
The striker also said that despite all his achievements, he remained motivated to prove the doubters wrong, as he has been throughout his career.
“It’s possible, it’s there,” Kane said when asked whether scoring 100 goals for England was feasible. “What is it, 34 goals [to reach the total]? I mean, it is strange, I have touched on it a bit, 100 caps have come round so quickly, especially the last few years playing three major tournaments in such a short space of time.
“In those years I’ve done around 15, 16, 17 caps a year whereas a normal year would be 10. The goals were similar. I felt I was on 30 goals and then, bam, I went to 50 and 60. It is definitely there and definitely possible. I feel like I am in a good place and these are good targets to try to reach.
“Some people may see them as unrealistic but I would rather go for something unrealistic and not quite make it rather than be comfortable just saying I will be happy with 70 or 80 goals.”
Ronaldo scored the 901st goal of his career – and his 132nd for Portugal in 214 appearances, a record in internationals – in the win over Scotland on Sunday and Kane said: “At 31, I am in a good place both 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.”
After the disappointment of losing a second European Championship final, this time to Spain, Kane is already targeting the next World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. “While I’m still at the level I’m at, I know I can help this country be successful. That motivates me,” he said.
“Even coming off the back of the summer, you know we came extremely close again to reaching the ultimate dream. But it didn’t happen. Now, it’s like, ‘OK, I know I can help this team get back there. A World Cup in two years’.”
The greatest achievement is to stay at the highest level for so long and Kane says he trains more intensely than ever – he calls working on his finishing “my happy place”.
He added: “You see a lot of players who have a few good seasons but then drop off and the hardest thing to do is to maintain it and consistently play at the highest level. That’s why I have so much respect for Ronaldo, [Lionel] Messi and these players. To be able to do it for 15 years or 20 years is some mindset and some achievement.”
Part of the motivation comes from the doubts and rejection Kane faced, from being let go by Arsenal, aged just eight, to coming close to being released by Tottenham Hotspur.
“I was never the guy that everyone thought was going to go on and do what I’ve done,” Kane said. “I think that’s just my desire to improve and improve.
“Just step by step in my career, I went on loan, had a couple of good loans, a couple of ones not so good but still had to fight for my place, fight for the opportunity to show that I could play at the level I wanted to – in the Premier League at that time and England.
“Throughout my career, there have always been people who doubted me. If you score 30 goals, it’s ‘can he score 40?’ If you score 40, ‘can he score 50?’ I think it’s just the world we live in now and sport in general, there’s always an expectation and also I think when you start consistently hitting high levels, all of sudden, 30 goals ain’t enough, you have to get 40.
“It helps me be consistent. It helps me to keep improving. [American footballer] Tom Brady was a big inspiration of mine. I’ve spoken about him previously, his mentality. He is a prime example of this and he went on to become the greatest in his sport. But 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 always have that attitude and I think deep down that motivates me.”