In 2015 they scoffed at Harry Kane as a “one-season wonder” after he went six games without scoring at Tottenham Hotspur; in 2017 there was derision when he said he wanted to match the numbers of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and win the Ballon D’Or; in 2018 there were even sniggers in the press conference on the eve of the World Cup in Russia when he declared his aim was to be the tournament’s top-scorer.

On the eve of becoming England’s record appearance maker – with a 126 th cap against Croatia in the Nations League surpassing Peter Shilton’s 125 – Kane smiles as he is reminded of how, each time, he has proved the doubters wrong. And often taken that criticism head on. It is, has always been and, it appears, always will be, the fuel that fires him.

The England captain also talks about:

• Not having any limits on what he can achieve, even now

• Setting records that Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice and others will struggle to break

• Never stopping having a point to prove

• Why he had to leave Tottenham Hotspur to fulfil his potential

• And whether he does, actually, have an ego

But first the doubters. “I think it’s just my mindset, because I’ve maybe had to prove people wrong my whole career,” Kane explains. “From early academy days proving coaches wrong, proving scouts wrong – it has just been instilled in me. I think if someone tells me I can’t do something it just motivates me more to do it.

“You, of course, have to combine the mentality with the actual product and being able to produce it. So, that’s where the self-belief and the training and all the consistent work I do has allowed me to do that. Ultimately when you look at all the great athletes – I’ve spoken about Tom Brady before – and that unwavering mentality to be the best.

“Maybe, with me, because I’m a calm person and you don’t see …. the ego of some of these great players and I’m a bit more relaxed. But it doesn’t mean that I don’t want it as much as everyone else. It doesn’t mean I don’t put in the work and drive myself and drive everyone around me to be the best… Again, same thing: ‘I’m going to show them’. Using maybe all the negative stuff as motivation to push me to another level.”

Kane was no one-season wonder. He followed up that breakthrough campaign with 28 goals in 50 games and ended up Tottenham’s all-time leading goalscorer with 267 when he left in 2023. And he did go on to match Messi and Ronaldo’s returns – 73 goals for club and country in the last year – and, of course, win that Ballon d’Or last month. And he did top score in that World Cup of 2018.

Records, achievements and – since his move to Bayern Munich – trophies have all been conquered by the 33-year-old although it is telling that, despite a glorious career in which he has become England’s record scorer with 91 goals, the motivation remains undimmed. Does he still feel he has a point to prove?

“I think so. I don’t think that will ever leave me. It’s probably part of what makes me push myself to the limits that I do because in football, you’ve never completed it, really,” Kane says. “No matter what you’ve achieved, there is always a trophy that someone else has won or a goal record that someone else has or whatever. I think there’s always something.

“So, whether it’s noise from the outside … media or the fans or whatever it may be, it just helps motivate me to realise there’s a lot more to achieve. My biggest fear is finishing my career and thinking ‘I could have done a bit more if I could have just done that or done that’.

“I want to make sure that I cross every bridge and do everything possible so that, whenever that day does come, I can say ‘I’ve done everything possible. I have this record, I don’t have this record but it doesn’t matter, I can sleep well at night’.”

Although Kane is on the cusp of the England appearance record, he feels far from finished. “I think not setting limits is a big thing,” he says. “At any stage, if you feel like, or maybe from the outside, you’re going to slow down - ‘Okay, you’ve reached that record, and now you’re going to slow down’.

“But ultimately, if anything, I’ve got better year on year, and the numbers have got better. While I’m feeling like this, there’s no limit on it, why would I put any limit on it? I’m just on the back of scoring 73 goals in one year, which is incredible.

“They’ve come around quick, even just from making 100 caps to now, breaking the records…So, a lot of these things seem a long way away. But, as we know, the seasons go by so quick, and before we know it it’ll be the Euros [in 2028], a home Euros, I might be on 140 caps by then, or whatever it may be, and then we’ll be talking about 150…100 goals is not too far away now, so hopefully that can be achieved fairly quickly. And then from there, we’ll see what the next one is.”

Given Kane’s ambition, his form and his confidence, can he even put those records out-of-sight for those – such as Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice – who are following him?

“I think so. Again, when you look at Jude and Dec, for example, they’re on 60-odd caps already [Bellingham 60 at 23 years of age and Rice 80 at 27] and how young they are. So, I’ll try and give them a good number to catch. The goal record, of course, is going to be one that’s difficult to beat for a while, I think that’s good.”

It will pain – but not surprise – Tottenham fans to hear it but Kane believes he had to leave the club to realise his full potential. “Going to Bayern, going to the Bundesliga, seeing the fans, seeing the reactions, playing the latter stages of the Champions League for a team like Bayern Munich, the pressure that comes with that, that has all elevated me to another level,” he says.

“The pressure of being Bayern’s number nine, even just the price tag. I didn’t experience that at Tottenham. I was through the academy. But going for £100million and people saying ‘He’s going for £100 million, he needs to score this many goals or he needs to follow in the footsteps of [Robert] Lewandowski’ and all these things. Having that pressure just made me better.”

Kane’s status now dictates that he is the best in the world; a world-class performer and an all-time England great. Surely there are “diva” moments, even from such an unassuming character, albeit one who is so driven?

“That’s a great question. I’m not quite sure. I’m sure my wife [Kate] will be able to say a thing or two!” Kane says, laughing. “I’m not sure, to be honest. I’m sure there has been stuff. But ego is a funny thing because ego is many different things. I guess I have an ego to be the best because I want to be the best, but I don’t do it in a show-off way.”

Where Kane stands in Britain’s greatest footballing exports

Harry Kane returns to Wembley as the holder of the Ballon d’Or, something no England player has possessed since the days of Michael Owen.

Like Owen, Kane has opted to move away from the domestic game to a European giant. Unlike Owen he can make a fair claim as one of the most successful British players ever to do so. But where does he rank in our top 10?

We have attempted to assess based on achievements while playing overseas, rather than overall playing career, or ability to sell shirts. So there is no room for David Platt, Glenn Hoddle or David Beckham whose overseas spells were successful, just not enough to rival the very best.

We are also assessing on playing career alone, so while John Toshack managed some of Europe’s biggest names he is ineligible, given he spent his playing career in Wales and England.

Let us begin:

10. Laurie Cunningham

(Real Madrid 1979-84, Sporting Gijon 1983-84, Marseille 1984-85, Rayo Vallecano 1986-87 then 1988-89, Charleroi 1987)

Best remembered for taking an under-travelled road from West Bromwich Albion to Real Madrid, becoming the first Englishman to play for Real in the process. Cunningham won La Liga and two Copas del Rey, but injuries took their toll. Remains the last Real player to walk off the pitch at the Nou Camp to applause from Barcelona fans after a fantastic individual display in a 2-0 Real win in 1980. His many other European club spells were less garlanded, before his death in a car crash at 33 in 1989.

9. Gary Lineker

(Barcelona 1986-89, Nagoya Grampus 1992-94)

Until another member of this list arrived in Spain, Lineker was the highest-scoring British player ever in La Liga. Could not win a title in his three seasons in Barcelona, but quickly won the Catalan supporters’ hearts with 21 goals in his first season. In his second Clásico, Lineker scored all three in a 3-2 win. Struggled after Johan Cruyff arrived in his final season and decided he should be playing on the wing, but still came back to England with a Copa del Rey and European Cup Winners’ Cup.

8. Jude Bellingham

(Borussia Dortmund 2020-23, Real Madrid 2023-present)

Seems likely to move further up this list in time, but if he left Real Madrid tomorrow it would be as a European Cup and Spanish title winner, both at the end of his first season in 2024. Has not maintained the astonishing pace he set in that debut campaign, which ended with 19 goals and a player of the season award, but it is still remarkable to see an Englishman as top dog at arguably the most demanding club in world football. Clearly Kylian Mbappé is the main man at Real, but Bellingham is not far behind and the relish with which he embraces that role speaks volumes about the 23-year-old.

7. Chris Waddle

(Marseille 1989-92)

A funny old career for Chris Waddle, starting at Tow Law Town in county Durham and winding down at Torquay, Worksop Town and Glapwell. In between Waddle shone for Newcastle, Tottenham and Sheffield Wednesday, but may be most fondly regarded in Provence for his three years at the Stade Vélodrome. Was the third-most expensive player in the world behind only Diego Maradona and Ruud Gullit when he arrived. His £4.5m fee was repaid with three successive league titles and a near-miss in the 1991 European Cup final. Voted Marseille’s second-best player of all time in the club’s centenary poll, won by Jean-Pierre Papin.

6. Owen Hargreaves

(Bayern Munich 1997-2007)

Occupies an unusual position in the English football imagination as a Canadian-born England international who represented Wales as an under-19 and did not play in the Premier League until he was 26. Should not overshadow his litany of achievements in a decade with Bayern Munich. Won the Champions League as a 20-year-old, starting the final against Valencia and would go on to win four league titles and three cups.

5. Steve McManaman

(Real Madrid 1999-2003)

Real Madrid do not really tolerate players slowly finding their feet, but McManaman endured a frustrating start to life in Spain after joining on a free transfer from Liverpool. There were months out injured and many spells on the bench, but he emerged as a key player as his first season progressed, then scored a glorious volley in the Champions League final capping off a sparkling individual display against Valencia. Won the competition again two years later, as well as two league titles. Was the first Englishman to win the Champions League with a foreign club. Let the record also show that the Real Madrid official website states: “his gentlemanly nature both on and off the pitch … made the Englishman one of the most-loved players by the fans”.

4. Harry Kane

(Bayern Munich 2023-present)

It has started promisingly for many British players when moving abroad, but the difficult second season has been a frequent issue. Perhaps Kane did not escape this pattern, after all he scored 10 fewer Bundesliga goals for Bayern Munich in his sophomore year. This is less of an issue when you remember it was 26 goals as opposed to 36, and still 41 in all competitions. Entered a new stratosphere last year with a Messi and Ronaldo-style 61-goal season, enough for the Ballon d’Or. Finally has those elusive trophies – two league titles and a German Cup, but time is ticking for the Champions League win his performances and dedication deserve.

3. John Charles

(Juventus 1957-62, Roma 1962-63)

The only Briton to end the Serie A season as top scorer (28 goals in 1957-58), Charles was voted Juventus’s best-ever foreign player in 1997 ahead of Michel Platini. Although a modern recount might bump him down that list, given how early it came in Zinedine Zidane’s career, he still won three league titles, two Coppe Italia and the Ballon d’Or in 1959, the only Welshman to do so. Was known as Il Gigante Buono (the gentle giant) for never being booked, let alone sent off, in Italy. Not bad for a man who split his time between centre-forward and centre-back.

2. Kevin Keegan

(Hamburg 1977-80)

A short stay in Germany, but one which included a Ballon d’Or in both seasons. To move countries and footballing cultures and then thrive to such an extent was, and is, more or less unheard of for a British player. So good he briefly made the perm a viable hairstyle for rock-hard footballers, and so beloved by his new fans that when he complained about missing English breakfast cereals he was inundated with parcels of them, and instructions on where more could be obtained. Ended a 19-year wait for a title for Hamburg and was another to earn an affectionate nickname in the language of his adopted home: Mächtig Maus – mighty mouse.

1. Gareth Bale

(Real Madrid 2013-22, Los Angeles FC 2022-23)

Recency bias sometimes leads to over-rating of current footballers. There is an opposite force which tends to dismiss the achievements of the current generation, before a (usually generous) reappraisal a decade or so later. Gareth Bale surely fits this trend, but there can really be no other candidate to top this list. Five European Cups, including a three-peat from 2016-18, which is more than any other British player in history. Three league titles and a Copa del Rey too, but it is those Champions League achievements, especially his brilliance in 2018, which will endure. All this despite preferring Wales, and golf.