Harry Kane will become the most-capped men’s player in England history on Thursday when he makes his 126th appearance for the Three Lions in their Nations League match against Croatia at Wembley. Kickoff is set for 7:45 p.m. GMT.
The 33-year-old Bayern Munich striker has scored 91 goals in 125 England appearances and is the 2026 Ballon d’Or winner. His next cap will move him past goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who won 125 caps between 1970 and 1990.
Kane said the appearance record matters less to him than the team. He described each England camp and match as an opportunity he continues to value, with representing the country well remaining his priority as he approaches the milestone.
Kane’s senior England career began in 2015, when he scored just 79 seconds after coming on against Lithuania at Wembley. He was 21 and playing for Tottenham, and England won the European Championship qualifier 4-0. Manager Roy Hodgson welcomed the immediate impact and expressed hope that it would lead to a long international career.
Eleven years later, Kane stands on the brink of making more appearances than any other man in England’s football history. He has gone through every emotion in a Three Lions shirt. He fought back tears after missing a penalty in the 2022 World Cup quarterfinal defeat by France, and he sang Wonderwall with fans following the win over Croatia at last summer’s World Cup — a moment he called one of his favorite ever in an England shirt.
England manager Thomas Tuchel said last week that Kane had earned both his Ballon d’Or and the opportunity to set the national appearance record in his next game. He described Thursday’s fixture as an appropriate moment to recognize the striker’s exceptional career.
From England fan to England captain
London-born Kane, who grew up in Chingford, was an England supporter long before he made his senior debut in that 4-0 win over Lithuania. At 12, he remembers the heartache of going out on penalties to Portugal in the quarterfinals of the 2006 World Cup under Sven-Goran Eriksson and the failure to qualify for Euro 2008 under Steve McClaren.
Kane recalled watching major tournaments in pub beer gardens with other England supporters. Those memories included the disappointment of penalty-shootout defeats, which he said could leave him in tears long before he experienced comparable pressure as a player.
Kane fell in love with football at an early age. At five, he wrote about his ambition to become a footballer in a school project. Weekends and holidays were spent playing in his local Ridgeway Park with his father, Patrick, and brother Charlie. They used trees as goalposts, with the two brothers taking turns to shoot while Patrick was in goal.
At Larkswood Primary School, Kane and his friends played football in the playground, where they were only allowed to use tennis balls. By then, the future England captain was playing for Sunday league team Ridgeway Rovers, whose former players included David Beckham, Kane’s idol growing up.
David Beckham made 115 England appearances between 1996 and 2009 and was at Real Madrid while Kane attended Chingford Foundation School. Beckham sent a Real Madrid shirt to the school, and Kane said seeing it displayed there was powerful motivation: an England star had grown up in the same neighborhood and followed a path he hoped to take.
Kane’s England milestones include scoring on his debut against Lithuania as a 21-year-old in 2015; his first game as captain, a 2-2 World Cup qualifying draw with Scotland at Hampden Park in 2017; his first England hat-trick against Panama at the 2018 World Cup in Russia; becoming England men’s record goalscorer after scoring against Italy in a Euro 2024 qualifier in Naples in 2023; and receiving a golden cap to mark his 100th England appearance in a Nations League game against Finland at Wembley in 2024.
Leadership and longevity
When Kane made his debut 11 years ago, Wayne Rooney was England captain and Joe Hart was in goal. Hart, Kane’s former Tottenham and England teammate, recalled his first impression of the young Tottenham striker, who had been called up after scoring 26 goals in 42 league and cup games in 2014-15.
Hart said Kane’s first England call-up prompted curiosity about a young striker arriving after an outstanding season at Tottenham. Once he saw him play, that curiosity became admiration, and subsequent camps convinced Hart that Kane’s game was continuing to improve.
Hart later trained alongside Kane at Tottenham during the pandemic. He recalled finding the striker’s finishing so difficult to stop that he sometimes did not attempt a dive, describing the experience as a mixture of affection for his teammate and frustration at being repeatedly beaten.
Kane has served five England managers. He played under Hodgson and current boss Tuchel, won 81 of his 125 caps under Gareth Southgate, played for Lee Carsley when he was interim manager in 2024, and appeared in Sam Allardyce’s sole match in charge in 2016.
Southgate first gave Kane the England captaincy in 2017, even though he did not then hold the same role at Tottenham. The manager said his choice reflected leadership qualities: Kane had the group’s respect and could accept responsibility and step forward when circumstances demanded it.
Kane has captained England in 97 of his starts, more than anyone else. Despite his individual awards and back-to-back Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich, he has not yet led his country to a major trophy. He will be approaching 35 when England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland co-host Euro 2028. The question of how long Kane will continue playing for England, and who will lead the attack when he retires, remains open.
Lothar Matthaus, who captained West Germany’s 1990 World Cup-winning side, said Kane’s performances had improved as he grew older. Having watched his impact at Bayern Munich, Matthaus regarded his development as evidence that age had not prevented further progress.
Kane is not publicly setting a retirement date. He said his physical condition remains strong, his performance measurements are still high and a recent game against Borussia Dortmund produced a new personal top speed. He intends to keep testing how much more he can achieve rather than treating the approaching record as an endpoint.
Hart said Kane’s effectiveness has never depended primarily on running speed. He attributed the striker’s lasting threat to his decisions, anticipation and understanding of how a game is developing.
England have won 83, drawn 22 and lost 20 of the 125 games in which Kane has appeared. His 91 goals break down as 58 with his right foot, 15 with his left and 18 headers; three have come from outside the penalty area, and 26 from the penalty spot.
Roots and giving back
Kane’s rise from a Leyton Orient loan signing to Ballon d’Or winner has been well documented. His story — the model student and family man who married his childhood sweetheart and became an England great — serves as a reminder to pupils at his old school to never give up on their dreams.
He has not forgotten his roots or the clubs that helped him along the way. In 2020, Kane sponsored Leyton Orient’s shirt. The club’s home strip carried a message of thanks to frontline workers tackling the coronavirus pandemic. Mental health charity Mind and Haven House Children’s Hospice also had their logos on Orient’s two change shirts as part of the deal.
Kane explained in 2020 that his connection to Leyton Orient was personal: he grew up only a few miles from the stadium and the club gave him his first professional start. The sponsorship allowed him to support the club while also recognizing frontline workers and charities providing care during the pandemic.
Matthaus also praised Kane’s character and the way he represents England while playing for a German club. He said the England captain had become a positive ambassador as well as an important player at Bayern.
Thursday’s game would take Kane to 126 appearances and place him above every other male England international. Hart’s admiration for his former teammate reflects a career that has already produced national scoring and captaincy records, with the appearance landmark now next in line.