Harry Kane and Gary Lineker are both key players in England’s squad, but the former Match of the Day presenter admits the Bayern Munich star is better than before.
Gary Lineker admits Harry Kane is the best striker ever, but says he feels like football has gotten easier these days, mainly due to the perfect playing surface.
Both players were England’s leading strikers of their generation and also chose to take their talents overseas at some point in their careers. While Lineker was at Barcelona, Kane is currently enjoying a brilliant spell at Bayern Munich, where he has finally ended his hopes of winning a silver medal.
Kane is the Three Lions’ all-time leading scorer with 78 international points, approximately 25 points behind second-placed Wayne Rooney. Lineker scored 48 goals for the Three Lions, placing him fourth on the list.
The former Tottenham player has taken his game to new heights in recent years, breaking away from his traditional No. 9 role and showing an ability to step deep into a playmaking role and influence matches, which Lineker admits is a hallmark.
“No, Harry Kane is a better footballer than me. I was purely a goalscorer in the penalty area, so I could do what I needed to do, but Harry could play as a number 10. He hits the ball 50 yards and a great pass. I was faster than Harry, but there is no doubt that he is the better player,” he told the Evening Standard.
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Kane won the World Cup Golden Boot in 2018, becoming the first Briton since Lineker to win the World Cup Golden Boot. Lineker had accomplished this feat some 32 years earlier. He also emulated Lineker, scoring three goals in a win over Panama and completing a World Cup hat-trick.
The former Match of the Day presenter claims that defenders are becoming less effective in the modern game and believes he would have been even more prolific had he had the opportunity to play in today’s conditions, despite scoring 283 goals in his club career. “Oh yeah, football is so easy now. The ground is like a pool table,” he said.
As Lineker himself admits, the demand for strikers and the numbers they are currently producing is changing the game. Previously, strikers were expected to score every other week, but the 65-year-old has only broken the 30-goal barrier in a season twice, while Kane has done it seven times.
“In my day, if you scored about one goal every two games, you were one of the top strikers in football,” he said. “Now it’s almost one goal per game. This shows how much the game has changed in favor of strikers.”
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