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There is no secret or shortcut to the precious, highly coveted art of scoring goals.
Some strikers even claim unconsciousness, inadvertently clearing their minds when eye-to-eye with the white posts.
Harry Kane, who has scored more goals in the colours of Tottenham Hotspur than anyone else, did his best to impart some wisdom. “When you get a clear sight of goal, aim low and hard across the goalkeeper,” he offered. “These are the most difficult shots to save.”
Kane makes it sound as easy as he makes it look. Yet, no one in the grand old history of Spurs can better his record-breaking 267 goal haul. Here’s when, where and how Kane scrawled his name into the history books.
166 goals with his right foot. 50 with his left. Another 50 with his head. And one off the right shoulder.
Away to Stoke City in 2018, the ball nestled in the net and Kane wheeled away in celebration. Yet, his teammates didn’t know whether to run to their talisman or the man who delivered the goal-bound cross, Christian Eriksen.
“No, it’s my goal for sure. It just flicked off my shoulder and went in,” Kane adamantly declared post-game.
When Eriksen joked it could be handball, Kane visibly flinched, running through the consequences of admitting that, before leaving the interview with a classic striker’s line: “I don’t care, it’s my goal.”
Kane and Son Heung-min have combined for more Premier League goals than any other pair in the competition’s history. However, the South Korean is vying for the crown of Kane’s most prolific provider with Eriksen.
Assuming Kane was in fact telling the truth about grazing Eriksen’s cross against Stoke – he did swear on his daughter’s life – then the Dane has teed up 27 goals for the frontman across all competitions, the same tally as Son.
Dele Alli is an oft-forgotten supplier for Kane. Across 204 appearances together for Tottenham, Alli teed up 21 Kane goals.
Kane isn’t shy of taking aim from range, rattling off almost 400 shots from outside the box across his Premier League career. However, the prolific poacher has been limited to just 24 top-flight goals beyond the 18-yard line.
176 of Kane’s strikes have been saved for within the confines of the box – 45 of which have come inside goal zone that is the six-yard area.
Kane has missed more penalties for England’s men’s senior side than any other player in the nation’s history (four), including one he may never be able to forget.
However, between 2018 and 2022, Kane converted 21 successive spot kicks for Spurs. His tally stands at 39 scored across all competitions at club level (and one rebound).
From outside the 18-yard box, Kane’s set piece proficiency falls off a cliff. Across his entire Tottenham career, Kane has scored just one direct free kick. Mauricio Pochettino described the heavily deflected floating effort against Aston Villa as his ‘favourite’ Kane goal. It may have snatched three late points for Spurs early on in Pochettino’s reign but it also encouraged Kane to continue taking set pieces.
Kane has failed to score from his subsequent 55 free-kick attempts in the competition.
In a remarkable show of consistency, Kane has scored at least once against every Premier League opponent he has ever faced. Leicester have received the brunt of Kane’s ire over the years, shipping a whopping 19 goals against their former loanee. Unsurprisingly, Leicester’s long-serving Kasper Schmeichel has let in more Harry Kane goals than any other goalkeeper (15).
Everton have conceded 15 to Kane and the Prince of north London holds the record for 14 goals in the derby against Arsenal.
Across all competitions, Kane has scored against 62 different teams from 20 countries, netting his first-ever senior goal in a Tottenham shirt against the Republic of Ireland’s Shamrock Rovers in 2011.
