Ending however many years of hurt it clocks in at, notwithstanding, the past couple of weeks will provide the cinematic introduction and conclusion when Harry Kane's career gets the full documentary treatment.

Kane made a particular point of thanking youth coaches and those who gave him a chance early in his career when he collected the Ballon d'Or at the London Palladium at the end of last month. Even in a room where there was plenty of hollering for Arsenal from some overly enthusiastic local attendees, the former Tottenham hero was cheered to the rafters.

He was a popular, everyman winner in an era of tedious glitz and politicking around soccer's most coveted individual award. The Ballon d'Or is a quickly flagged and seldom realised ambition for the stars of tomorrow. Kane's flagging of his early mentors and patchy loan spells at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester City in his youth highlighted how nothing was guaranteed or even expected.

Even his Tottenham breakthrough came with jibes about him being a potential "one-season wonder". When Kane scored within 79 seconds of coming on for his England debut against Lithuania in March 2015, for some it felt like a flash in a different pan. Wayne Rooney also scored that night to close in on Sir Bobby Charlton's all-time England scoring record, which he duly overhauled later that year.

Kane, the fresh-faced striker who then-manger Roy Hodgson rolled the dice on that night, has now gone past both of them. Charlton and Rooney, two men rightly considered among England's greatest ever players, are specks in the distance for Kane. Rooney bowed out with 53 goals to Charlton's 49. Kane has 91 and will almost certainly double both men's tallies.

On Thursday, when the Three Lions captain leads England out at Wembley to face familiar foes Croatia in the UEFA Nations League, he will break his country's caps record. Number 126, taking his tally ahead of long-serving goalkeeper Peter Shilton.

Most appearances, most goals. It stands to reason that Kane has a very good case for being considered the best England player of all time.

Is Harry Kane England's greatest ever player?

There's a distinction to grapple with at the start of this conversation: whether Kane is the greatest English player or the greatest England player, because those are slightly different things.

Other stars of the 21st century such as Rooney, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes can certainly claim to have been better players than Kane and have more celebrated club careers. Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard were also cap centurions but do not come close to Kane in terms of achievements for England.

A couple of generations earlier, there's Kevin Keegan. A two-time Ballon d'Or winner who excelled after joining Bundesliga heavyweights Hamburg from Liverpool in 1977, his career path has plenty in common with Kane. However, Keegan's peak years coincided with England failing to qualify for the 1974 and 1978 World Cups, and his 21 goals in 63 caps are a fairly modest return for a player of his vast capabilities.

It's worth dwelling on the success rate, or lack thereof, when assessing Englishmen abroad between Keegan and Kane. David Beckham was a qualified success at Real Madrid, Michael Owen less so over a shorter period. Gary Lineker did well enough at Barcelona; he has a Clasico hat-trick to his name, before being farmed out to the wing by Johan Cruyff.

Not many of England's best have tried their hand abroad, something that can be attributed partly to the financial power of the Premier League. But Kane turning up at Bayern and scoring at the rate of more or less a goal a game feels like it's been taken for granted a little too much.

Sure, Bayern are always favourites to win the modern Bundesliga and Kane had long come to be considered an inevitable goalscorer. But Englishmen simply do not join Europe's great clubs and perform as he has. Wales had John Charles at Juventus and Gareth Bale at Real Madrid generations apart, but Kane stands apart. England teammate Jude Bellingham might surpass him as his Real Madrid achievements stack up. Thomas Tuchel's two star men are trailblazers, and this conversation is likely to settle upon Bellingham in due course.

Kane's time at Tottenham means there is not the weight of trophies that the likes of Rooney and Lampard can boast, but Kane is definitely among England's greatest before we focus purely upon his exploits for the Three Lions.

Along with his caps and goals record, Kane has captained England to two European Championship finals and two World Cup semifinals. He is joint-fifth on the World Cup's all-time top scorers list, alongside Bayern great Gerd Muller on 14. He will have designs on climbing higher up the rankings at the 2030 tournament, when he will be a few weeks shy of his 37th birthday.

The clock is ticking for Kane, and he has tended to fade at the business end of international tournaments. This is a minor gripe, given he's responsible for England reaching those stages as a matter of course for the first time in more than half a century. A major tournament success at Euro 2028 or the 2030 World Cup would give him an ironclad case. He'll be well past a century of goals by that point too.

For now, Manchester United icon Charlton is probably a breath ahead. A powerhouse attacking midfielder, Charlton was talismanic for Sir Alf Ramsey's World Cup-winning side in 1966. His match-winning brace against Portugal in the semifinals is the sort of decisive major tournament performance Kane cannot yet lay claim to. 

Charlton, a Ballon d'Or winner and two-time runner-up, was also named in four World Cup squads, playing at three tournaments, enjoying incredible longevity in a 106-cap career spanning 1958 to 1970. 

The fact he made his England debut two months after being injured in the Munich air disaster, in which eight of his young United teammates were among 23 killed, also underlined a career where incredible human fortitude was at the foundation of everything. 

So is Kane England's best ever? Maybe not. Not yet. But he is one of two alongside Charlton; an incredible height to scale in the birthplace of the game.