Kane to become England’s most capped as his top 10 international moments are recalled

Harry Kane will become England's most capped player against Croatia at Wembley on Thursday, and the 33-year-old Ballon d'Or winner has scored a record 91 goals in 125, soon to be 126, matches for his country. Here are 10 of his most notable moments in an England shirt.

The collection traces Kane’s early impact and development, from his rapid scoring debut to his accumulation of appearances. He scored with just his third touch and after 79 seconds in international football during a 4-0 Euro 2016 qualifying win over Lithuania in March 2015, coming on in the 70th minute and heading Raheem Sterling's cross at Wembley; the BBC match report called him "the man with the Midas touch in front of goal this season".

Kane was England captain at his second major tournament, the 2018 World Cup, and has scored 21 major tournament goals for England, which is a record. His opening two World Cup goals came against Tunisia in Volgograd — he converted after John Stones' header was saved and then nodded in a stoppage-time winner to make it 2-1.

In England’s next 2018 game, Kane recorded his first international hat-trick in a 6-1 victory over Panama in Nizhny Novgorod, converting two penalties and seeing a Ruben Loftus-Cheek shot deflect in to complete the treble. He finished the tournament with six goals to claim the World Cup Golden Boot, becoming the second Englishman to do so after Gary Lineker; his sixth came from a penalty that put England 1-0 up against Colombia in the last 16, a match Colombia later brought level before Kane scored in the shootout.

At the Covid-delayed Euro 2020, Kane played a decisive part in England’s knockout progress at Wembley, nodding in from Jack Grealish's cross with four minutes remaining to secure a 2-0 win over Germany. He then scored the extra-time winner against Denmark after his penalty was initially saved by former Leicester team-mate Kasper Schmeichel but the rebound fell to him, a 2-1 victory that sent England into their first men's major tournament final since 1966.

Kane became England's all-time top scorer with his 54th goal in March 2023, taking him past Wayne Rooney when England beat Italy 2-1 in Naples; he had scored a first-half penalty to start the Euro 2024 qualifying campaign with that win. The striker has since extended that record by another 37 goals.

He was the joint top scorer at Euro 2024 with three goals. In the semi-final in Dortmund, England fell behind early but Kane equalised from the spot in the first half before Ollie Watkins' last-minute winner took them to the final; it was his second European Championship semi-final goal in two attempts.

Kane was awarded a golden cap and wore golden boots to mark his 100th England appearance in a Nations League match against Finland in 2024, and he scored both goals in a 2-0 win at Wembley, "smashing an effort in off the underside of the bar and then curling in a second."

England’s 2026 World Cup campaign featured late interventions from Kane as well: against DR Congo he scored twice in the final 15 minutes, heading an equaliser before "smashing in a brilliant winner on the turn with four minutes remaining." He then scored in the next round against Mexico and, following the match in the Azteca altitude, made headlines with a squeaky-voiced post-match interview in which he said, "I'm speechless".

Kane will set the new England appearance record when he faces Croatia at Wembley on Thursday, a match that will see him reach what the feature highlights as a landmark in a career of defining international moments.