Harry Kane is set to make his 126th England cap against Croatia at Wembley on Thursday night and move past Peter Shilton’s men’s record. He goes in with 91 goals in 125 caps, and the milestone is already being framed by Kane as something to build on rather than something to sit on.

Kane's view of the record

"I think not setting limits is a big thing," Kane told Mirror. "At any stage, if you feel like you're going to slow down: ‘OK, you've reached that record, and now you’re going to slow down.’"

He gave the same message in different words when speaking to the Independent, saying his biggest fear was finishing his career and thinking he could have done a bit more. "I want to make sure that I cross every bridge so that whenever that day does come, I can say I’ve done everything possible, I have this record, I don’t have this record - but it doesn’t matter, I can sleep well at night."

That is a more interesting line than the usual milestone chat because it shows where his head is. Kane is talking about 100 goals, a record that he believes will be hard to beat for a while, and a major trophy with England as his biggest dream.

The challengers he already sees

Kane also pointed to two players who could one day chase his caps mark. Speaking to the Standard, he said: "Look at Jude or Dec, for example - they’re on 60-odd caps already. And look at how young they are. I will try and give them a good number to catch."

Declan Rice is on 80 caps and Jude Bellingham is on 60, so Kane is looking well ahead of his own record. That does not take away from the size of Thursday night at Wembley, where England are also dealing with the practical side of the occasion against England vs Croatia.

The bigger point is that Kane does not sound like a player treating the caps record as a finish line. He has already got 91 goals, he is about to become England’s most-capped men’s player, and he is still talking about what comes next.

Once the Croatia game is done, the record book will show 126 caps and a new England benchmark for Kane to keep extending.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →