Harry Kane etched his name in the pantheon of Premier League greats by scoring his 200th goal for Tottenham against Manchester City, breaking Jimmy Greaves’ club record.
Harry Kane scored against Manchester City to surpass Jimmy Greaves as Tottenham Hotspur’s all-time leading scorer.
The England captain, 29, scored his 267th goal for Spurs in all competitions against Pep Guardiola’s side, passing the legendary Greaves. Kane’s goal against Fulham in January brought him level with the Three Lions legend and put him on the verge of reaching 200 Premier League goals.
It took Kane a mere 15 minutes to break the record when City came to town, giving Tottenham a surprise lead thanks to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s smart layoff inside the penalty area. The 29-year-old cooly slotted home past Ederson with a simple finish, scoring against the team he was close to signing for in the summer of 2021.
Gary Lineker, ex-Spurs striker and Match of the Day host, said after Kane joined Greaves on 266 goals: “What an incredible achievement for Harry Kane to equal the great Jimmy Greaves as Tottenham’s all-time leading scorer. And, before you ask, I know he hasn’t won anything. That fact, however, does not diminish his ability as a footballer.”
Kane’s record-breaking goal came 12 and a half years after making his Premier League debut under Harry Redknapp. Kane made his Premier League debut in April 2014, against Sunderland, after a brief spell at Norwich in the top flight and a loan at Leicester in the Championship.
Kane’s first goal for Tottenham came several years earlier, in December 2011, against Shamrock Rovers in the Europa League. Few could have predicted the centre-forward would go on to become the club and country’s talisman, but he shrugged off the ‘one-season wonder’ label he was given in his breakout 31-goal 2014/15 season to establish himself as one of the great marksmen of the twenty-first century.
Kane, England’s joint-leading scorer with Wayne Rooney, netted a career-high 41 goals across all competitions in the 2017/18 season, and he has three Premier League Golden Boots to his name.
England captain Kane expressed pride in the record, but was still disappointed by a missed second-half chance at Craven Cottage that would have given him the title outright. “I’ve been playing football long enough now to know where the goal is; it’s just instinct and the joy of scoring goals,” he explained.
“I should have scored another really, I could maybe have volleyed it but in the moment I thought the header was a better option. Hopefully, we can use today’s victory to gain some momentum. We needed to return to what got us into the Champions League last year, and that was keeping clean sheets.
“We do a lot of fitness work for sure, last season we came really strong towards he end of the season.
According to recent reports, Kane will look to stay in north London, with manager Antonio Conte insisting that they should now begin to dream of winning silverware.
“We’re talking about a player with fantastic ability and good experience,” Tottenham manager Antonio Conte said. Sure, I’d like to assist him and his teammates in accomplishing something significant, such as winning something with Tottenham, because he adores the club.
“And it should be good if together we were able to win something. It’s important for him to have this record, but it might be even more important for him to have a trophy. We must be dreamers.”
