Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DEFOE: I ALWAYS KNEW KANE WAS SHEAR CLASS
JERMAIN DEFOE has challenged Harry Kane to shatter Alan Shearer’s Premier League goals record after claiming: I always knew he was special.
Kane was just a teenager in Tottenham’s junior ranks when Defoe was the club’s star striker. But Kane’s incredible scoring feats have since seen him take the crown as the goal king of north London.
Bournemouth hitman Defoe said: “I have been saying for a long time how good a finisher Harry is. Then he started playing for the Under-21s and I always said he should have been involved in the first team sooner.
“When he was very good in his first season everyone said, ‘He’s not going to do it again’ – and he did.
“Without putting too much pressure on Harry, because I like him as a boy and he’s a nice kid, he is a goalscoring machine. You just know when he gets a chance that he is going to score.”
Kane, 24, has netted 84 times in only 120 Premier League games and if he can maintain that incredible strike rate he’s on course to overtake Shearer’s all-time record haul of 260.
Defoe, who faces Kane and old club Tottenham at Wembley today, said: “Shearer was special and despite all the great forwards in the Premier League, he is still at the top. Wayne Rooney was getting close to him, but it is not easy. For 260 goals you have to be doing it year in, year out, for a long time. “But Harry has to be thinking about beating him, because I would. “There is a lot of pressure but I just feel Harry must be thinking that’s the dream. The dream is to be the highest goalscorer for England and the highest goalscorer in the Premier League. If he continues scoring goals like he is, the sky is the limit.
“Especially in that Spurs team – the way they play, the chances they create – he must be looking at the record.”
Defoe and Kane will be aiming to team up and fire England to World Cup glory in Russia next summer. But Defoe says the pair cannot play together – because they are too greedy. He said: “We would just both be shooting, wouldn’t we?!”
Defoe, 35, will be retired long before Kane gets anywhere close to Shearer’s record. But when asked if he can play into his 40s, Defoe said: “I will try. I will give it a good go. I can always look myself in the mirror if I have an unbelievable season.”