A striking comparison: The numbers add up for Harry Kane

You are currently viewing A striking comparison: The numbers add up for Harry Kane
  • Post published:May 19, 2021

Harry Kane could hit the transfer market this summer – but what would a potential buyer be getting?

Kane will be 28 at the start of next season and a look at his record reinforces his elite status throughout his time in the Premier League.

Here, the PA news agency looks at how Kane compares to his leading contemporaries.

The players

Harry Kane compared to his Premier League peers

Harry Kane compares impressively with his Premier League peers (PA graphic)

Kane began to establish himself with Tottenham in 2013-14, becoming a focal point of the team the following season.

Among forwards who have been mainstays for leading Premier League clubs since then, we have attempted to identify those with the leading goal and assist records and measure how Kane compares.

Sergio Aguero, Jamie Vardy and Romelu Lukaku, like Kane, all have more than 100 Premier League goals to their name, with Mohamed Salah, Raheem Sterling and Sadio Mane on track to join them next season.

Kane’s teammate, Son Heung-min, Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and his Gunners predecessor, Alexis Sanchez, are the other players on the list, with no place for those not seen as true forwards such as Chelsea duo Frank Lampard and Eden Hazard.

Goalscoring

Harry Kane, left, and Sergio Aguero celebrate goals

Sergio Aguero (right) provides the most direct comparison to Kane as an out-and-out frontman (John Walton/Martin Rickett/PA)

As one of an increasingly rare breed of out-and-out central strikers, goals are the main currency on which Kane will always be judged.

Of our selection, only Aguero has scored more than him in the Premier League – and the Argentinian, who will depart Manchester City this summer, has played 274 Premier League games to Kane’s 243.

Kane has the slight edge in goals per game, 0.68 to 0.66, and indeed leads the 10 players in that category – Salah (0.62) is the pair’s nearest challenger, with his 97 coming in only 156 games.

Vardy’s 166 goals have come in the same number of games as Kane – prior to Leicester’s game with Chelsea on Tuesday evening – while Lukaku’s 113 took him 252 games with Chelsea, West Brom, Everton and Manchester United.

Sterling, who has played the most games of any of the 10 players, and Mane are in the 90s – Sterling and Son, operating largely from the wing, have the lowest goals-per-game averages at 0.33 and 0.36, respectively.

All-round impact

Kane leads the Premier League in both goals – jointly with Salah on 22 – and assists this season after his partnership with Son exploded into life early in the campaign.

Thirteen this season have taken him to 33 assists for his Premier League career and a combined goals and assists record of 0.81 per game – narrowly behind Aguero and Salah but ahead of the rest of our group.

Aguero has 47 assists and a combined 0.84 goals or assists per game, with Salah at 0.83 having matched Kane’s 33 assists.

Aubameyang is next with 64 goals and 15 assists in 112 games for a combined 0.71 per game, with Vardy at 0.63 and Sanchez 0.61, while the other players on the list also rank at better than a goal or assist every two games.

High point

Mohamed Salah with the Premier League Golden Boot

Two-time Golden Boot winner Mohamed Salah had 42 combined goals and assists in 2017-18 (Dave Thompson/PA)

Either Kane or Salah looks set to win a third Premier League Golden Boot this season, with the pair four clear of the chasing pack ahead of Tuesday and Wednesday’s penultimate round of games.

Kane won the 2015-16 and 2016-17 awards, with 25 and 29 goals respectively – though his most prolific season actually came the following year with 30 goals. Salah won that term’s Golden Boot with 32 before sharing the 2918-19 prize with Mane and Aubameyang on 22.

Vardy was last season’s top-scorer with 23, while Aguero’s 26 goals took top honours in the season before Kane’s first win.

Kane needs one more goal or assist this term to match his highest combined output – 36 in 2016-17 when he added seven assists to his 29 goals.

Salah had 10 assists to go with his 32 goals in 2017-18 while Aguero and Sanchez each have a season with 34 combined goals and assists.

Former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was not considered having only briefly overlapped with Kane in the Premier League, but had 31 goals and 12 assists in 2013-14.