Opinion: Judging whether prime Harry Kane is better than prime Wayne Rooney

Harry Kane is known to be one of the greatest strikers in the world at the moment, but has he reached a higher level than Wayne Rooney ever did?

People often compared the two after Rooney retired to take the job at Derby and there are many arguments to claim that each is better than the other. So let’s take a look.

Rooney’s best-ever season in the Premier League was during the 2011/2012 campaign. In this season he got 27 goals and 4 assists in 34 games (Premier League).

Kane is arguably in his prime season at the moment with 12 goals and 11 assists in 19 games (Premier League). That would suggest that Kane is on course to break Rooney’s best-ever season so does that make him the better striker?

Rooney is still the record holder for the most goals scored for England. He has 53 goals in 120 games for his country (Transfermarkt). Meanwhile, Harry Kane has scored 32 goals in 51 games (Transfermarkt). This, once again, suggests he will break Rooney’s feat.

Rooney also has the second-highest number of goals in the Premier League with 208 (Premier League). Kane, on the other hand, has 155 (Premier League).

Hopefully, Kane will stay at Spurs long enough to able to break Rooney’s record and maybe even Alan Shearer’s too. On overall goal scoring ability, it suggests that Kane is the superior player.

However, Rooney has won many major honours, something that Kane is still chasing. Throughout his illustrious career, Rooney won 17 major honours including five Premier Leagues (Transfermarkt).

Kane, unfortunately, has no major trophies to speak of, although he is a World Cup golden boot winner and a two-time Premier League golden boot winner (Transfermarkt).

Rooney has clearly won trophies within his team, however, should team trophies define who is a better individual talent? In my opinion, it should not, which is why I think Kane is the better player in their prime.

People will say that the best players play for the best teams so people will naturally argue that Rooney is better. However, if Kane is theoretically in a worse team, then his scoring records are surely even more impressive.

Kane and Son are carrying this Spurs team whilst Rooney was part of one of the greatest teams of all time. He was always going to win more trophies whilst it is much harder for Kane to achieve that goal.

Therefore, I believe that Kane is the greater player due to his superior goalscoring in a worse team. Rooney may have won more trophies, but trophies shouldn’t define who a player is.

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