Joe Cole has put Harry Kane at the top of England’s No. 9 debate, saying the Bayern Munich striker is ahead of Wayne Rooney and Alan Shearer. The comment lands as Kane sits in the Ballon d’or conversation after a 2025–26 season built on goals, assists and volume that few forwards can match.
Joe Cole on Kane
“Without doubt he’s England‘s greatest No. 9. And I’m including Shearer and Rooney in that. I think he’s gone above them in that. You see the goals he’s scored, it’s ridiculous. If he wins a Ballon d’Or, then he’s in the conversation. If he wins the World Cup, he’s even more in the conversation. But it’s just great that he’s one of ours. He’s been the quietly unassuming hero that’s just crept along. And now all of a sudden we realise how good he is,” Cole said.
The assessment puts Kane above two of England’s most familiar strikers in a straight comparison, and it also raises the bar for the current debate around his place in the game. Cole did not frame it as a narrow hot streak verdict. He tied it to trophies and to the level Kane has maintained for club and country.
Kane’s 2025–26 numbers
Kane is 32 years old and has produced 54 goals and 7 assists in 46 matches in the 2025–26 season. Those numbers explain why the conversation has moved beyond England alone and into individual award territory.
He has also passed Rooney in Premier League goals, reaching 213 in 316 matches. Shearer still leads that all-time list with 260 goals in 441 games, so Kane’s league case remains clear but unfinished.
England’s scoring mark
Kane has scored 78 goals for England and is the national team’s all-time top scorer. He needs just two goals to move past Gary Lineker as England’s all-time top scorer in the tournament.
That total sits inside a broader England picture that has not included a Ballon d’Or winner for 25 years, with Michael Owen the last English player to take the prize. Cole said Kane could enter an even stronger historical lane if he wins the World Cup and the Golden Boot, which would place the striker in a different part of the England record book.
For Kane, the path is already defined by the numbers Cole used: 54 goals this season, 78 for England and a Premier League chase that has him ahead of Rooney but still behind Shearer. The next step is simple enough to say and difficult enough to deliver — turn the club scoring rate into the kind of trophy run that keeps the Ballon d’or argument alive.
