Harry Kane’s final task of the finest season of a magnificent career is to attend to unfinished business as England’s World Cup captain. The 32-year-old leads Thomas Tuchel’s side into their opening game against Croatia in Dallas on 17 June, carrying the hopes of a nation that has not seen men’s success since 1966.
Kane is England’s ‘Mr Irreplaceable’ – proved when Tuchel’s team were ominously toothless in March friendlies against Uruguay and Japan without him. He missed those games; England drew with Uruguay and lost to Japan. His fitness is Tuchel’s biggest concern, not simply because Kane is England’s all-time record scorer with 78 goals in 112 games, but because no one is remotely in his class.
“Harry Kane leads England into World Cup 2026 as irreplaceable captain, after a record-breaking season at Bayern Munich.”
This season, Kane scored 66 goals in 56 games for Bayern Munich, winning a second successive Bundesliga and scoring a hat-trick as they beat Stuttgart 3-0 in the German Cup final. Silverware has come late after barren years at Tottenham; now he is making up for lost time.
“Harry Kane is so important that if he announced his international retirement this afternoon, everyone would instantly view England’s World Cup chances in a different, more pessimistic light,” former England striker Chris Sutton told BBC Sport.
Kane has suffered the disappointment of losing successive European Championship finals to Italy and Spain, a World Cup semi-final defeat by Croatia in 2018 and a quarter-final loss to France in Qatar. But his stellar form and fitness suggest the time might be right.
Former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson, a BBC Radio 5 Live match analyst, said: “Kane is one player England can’t do without. Irreplaceable.”
Tuchel has brought Ivan Toney into the squad. Toney scored 32 goals for Al-Ahli and won the Asian Champions League for the second season running.
England continue their countdown with a friendly against New Zealand at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday. After that, it is Croatia – and Kane’s chance to end 60 years of pain.