Harry Kane Back In Contention for Top Scorer

Tottenham Hotspur striker and England captain Harry Kane is in magnificent form this season.   If Kane sustains his form and avoids injury, the 27-year old is a strong contender to be top goalscorer in the Premier League.  He won the Premier League Golden Boot in 2015/16 and 2016/17; could he now be heading for a hat trick?

The UK bookmakers certainly think a hat trick is possible.  Their top pick for the top goalscorer is Liverpool star Mohamed Salah with odds of 4/1 from Boylesports. Salah was top goalscorer in 2017/18 and again in 2018/19, and he has already scored six goals this season, helping Liverpool to third position in the League.  But Kane is nudging at Salah’s elbow, with odds of 9/2 from the same bookmaker showing that there is all to play for with only five games of thirty eight played so far.

Harry Kane’s most recent performance against West Ham was immense.  He created the opportunity for Son Heung-min to score the opening goal and then scored twice himself.  West Ham made a great comeback with the game finishing as a draw, after new signing Gareth Bale failed to score in the second half, but that cannot take the gloss off Kane’s contribution to his team.  

So far this season, the Spurs striker has five goals under his belt, slightly behind his teammate Son Heung-min who has scored seven, Dominic Calert-Lewin of Everton also on seven and Mo Salah who has scored six.  But remember, too, that Kane has scored ten goals from just nine matches in all competitions so far this season and he has delivered eight assists for Spurs, being directly involved in 18 of the club’s 28 goals that have been scored in all competitions so far this season.  

He is one of the best strikers in the world at the moment and pundits wonder if he will be looking for a move to another club at the end of the season in order to be in the hunt for Champions League glory.  Former Spurs striker, Darren Bent, believes that Kane needs to be open to new opportunities, saying “I genuinely believe this is the best we’ve seen Harry Kane play, in terms of his all-round game and his impact in the game…At the moment he’s the complete package.  But I do fear for Spurs a little bit. If they don’t win anything again this season and, as well as Harry Kane’s playing now, what does he do?  Does he stay there again for the sake of it because he loves the club? Or does he go on to another level?  Someone of that quality needs to be playing in the Champions League”.

Harry Kane’s teammates and Manager Jose Mourinho would be loath to lose him as he is the lynchpin of the club.  Kane’s current contract will not expire until summer 2024 but if he ends this season as Premier League top goalscorer once again, the lure of a major European club such as Juventus or Real Madrid may prove irresistible.