Rooney: Harry Kane wants to become England's Lewandowski

The Tottenham striker became England’s top-scorer of all time by scoring against Italy.

Wayne Rooney has praised Harry Kane, who broke his goalscoring record for England.

Kane converted a penalty for the Three Lions in their 2-1 win over Italy on Thursday. It was the England captain’s 54th goal, taking him past Rooney.

Writing in his column for the Times, Rooney reacted to Kane’s remarkable record.

“When I broke the England goalscoring record with a penalty against Switzerland in September 2015, Harry Kane was the first player to run over and celebrate with me,” Rooney wrote.

“Even then, with only four caps under his belt, I knew he could become England’s greatest scorer if he kept going the way he was and I wanted to give him encouragement.”

Kane also became Tottenham’s all-time top-scorer when he overtook Jimmy Greaves last month. The 29-year-old is also only four goals away from moving past Rooney in the Premier League‘s all-time goalscoring charts.

Having scored 204 goals, Kane needs to score 57 more times in the English top flight to move past Alan Shearer.

Rooney added: “I believe that when he stops playing he will leave the England record in a place where it will be very difficult for someone else to break it.

“He wants to be like Poland’s Robert Lewandowski, a goal machine who is still at the very top in his mid-thirties, and he has it in him to make that happen. I think Harry will finish with an England goals total well into the seventies.”