England manager Gareth Southgate has joked that Wayne Rooney’s family were on the phone telling him to substitute Harry Kane in the 10-0 drubbing of San Marino.
The Tottenham striker scored four times against the Group I minnows, which took him past Jimmy Greaves in the all-time scorers list into third, level with Gary Lineker’s 48 goals and just one behind Bobby Charlton.
The encounter in Serravalle also saw Kane become the first England player to score back-to-back hat-tricks since 1957, as well as the first player since 1993 to score four goals in a game.
He is now just five goals behind the record of 53 set by Rooney, despite playing 53 fewer games than the Manchester United icon.
However, it could have been so much more for the Three Lions captain had he not been substituted after 63 minutes, with a further three goals scored without him on the pitch.
Southgate has since revealed that he shared a hilarious exchange as the striker left the action, telling Kane that Rooney’s family had called telling him to make the change in fear of the national record being broken.
Southgate told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I said to him Wayne Rooney’s family had been on the phone to get him off! He was going to go past about four leading goal scorers in one night.
MORE SPURS STORIES
“We wanted Kane and [Harry] Maguire and some senior players in there from the start to send a message.”
Spurs Web Opinion
It is quite evident that Kane will breeze past Rooney’s record and will likely set the bar very high for future generations.
A lot has been made about the quality of opposition he has scored against, but in reality, all top goal scorers for national sides will have a similar scoring history.
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
