England’s greatest strikers ranked: Record goalscorer Harry Kane below three other forwards

Harry Kane is England’s greatest ever goalscorer – but he’s not the country’s best striker in history.

That’s the view of talkSPORT co-hosts Alan Pardew and Majestic, who have had their say on the Three Lions captain following his latest milestone.

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The 32-year-old brought up his 500th career goal in senior football having scored a double during Bayern Munich’s 3-0 win away at Werder Bremen over the weekend.

He did so on his 743rd outing for club and country – reaching the whopping figure in 12 games fewer than Cristiano Ronaldo.

It’s just the latest personal landmark he has achieved this season, with the ex-Tottenham Hotspur star bringing up a century of goals for Bayern in September – reaching triple digits quicker than any player has done for a club in a ‘Big Five’ league.

Kane also broke a 36-year Three Lions record previously held by Gary Lineker during the October international break.

With 41 goals in all competitions for the Bavarian giants this term, with 26 coming in the German top-flight, he is in with a chance of breaking the Bundesliga record for most goals in a single campaign.

Already England’s all-time top scorer with 78 goals in 112 caps, he also became the country’s highest-scoring player across all levels of football in December.

And now having become the first Englishman – and the first player born in the 1990s to reach 500 goals – the question has been asked where does he sit amongst England’s greatest strikers.

For ex-Newcastle and West Ham boss Pardew, and Spurs fan Majestic, he does not sit top of the pile.

Speaking on The Final Word, former Tottenham defender Pardew said: “I mean, the facts speak for themselves, don’t they?

“He’s very much in the conversation as the best. I’m not sure he’d be my best, but he’s up there.”

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But Majestic has insisted he cannot be number one on his list due to him ‘not turning up’ in two European Championship finals, one Champions League final and two League Cup finals.

Kane failed to score in any of the contests, with the centre-forward finding himself on the losing side on each occasion.

Pardew then threw some names out who are in the conversation of being regarded as being England’s greatest striker.

He reeled off Alan Shearer, two-time Ballon d’Or winner Kevin Keegan, Gary Lineker, Wayne Rooney and Jimmy Greaves – notably leaving out 1966 World Cup hero Sir Geoff Hurst.

Pressed for his top three, Pardew initially refused to name his list in order, stating: “Well, I would have Shearer, Rooney, Keegan, Jimmy Greaves and Harry Kane. There you go.

“I’m not picking [the top three]. I’m not picking. No, I don’t have to.”

Though he did stress that if he only had one player to lead England’s line, it would be the Premier League’s all-time top scorer in Shearer.

He then reeled off his list in order, saying: “Wayne Rooney, running really close [behind Shearer], and then Kevin Keegan and then Harry Kane and then Jimmy Greaves.”

For Majestic, he stressed that due to not watching Greaves and Keegan, he couldn’t comment as to whether they should be above Kane.

Instead, he compared Kane – in his current prime at Bayern – to both Shearer [pre-ACL injury at Blackburn] and Rooney [2004].

Majestic stated: “I remember at first when Harry was having really good moments for Spurs, and they were talking about it on Match of the Day, and they said to him about Alan Shearer, like, ‘Is he [Shearer] comparable to you?’

“And he went, ‘Nah, I was [Teddy] Sheringham,’ he can do both of those parts of the game [score and create], and that’s one thing that stood out for me.

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“He can do that, he can drop deep, that’s why I think, and he is such a great professional, he will be in the game as long as he stays injury free.

“And he seems to have done that over in Bayern Munich, he was always [having a] problem with his heel or his ankle.

“He’s done all right over there in terms of staying fit, he looks after himself, he’s got another three, four years in him.”

For his number one pick, Majestic opted for Rooney, citing his Euro 2004 performances as a fresh-faced and fearless 18-year-old as the reason.

He said: “I’m gonna choose Wayne Rooney. Wayne Rooney against France [2-1 group stage defeat] that European Championship…. Wayne Rooney was a joke, a joke of a man, he was bullying [Lillian] Thuram.”

Interjecting as to why he opted for Shearer over Rooney, Pardew then remarked: “There was one tiny little flaw in Wayne’s makeup in my opinion.

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“The mentality that he just went over the top a little bit, got a little bit too emotionally involved in the game, and Alan Shearer was always cold I always thought.

“There was a few… he could have nasty moments, you remember that thing with Roy Keane? He can be a bit nasty don’t worry about that.

“But he was quite cold emotionally to the game, whereas the heat of a big game like Argentina or something… you know with Wayne, you never know.”

Switching focus back to Kane, Pardew concluded by saying: “Well done Harry, superb, and for all his family if anyone’s listening. Must be so proud of you.”