There aren’t many people more qualified to judge the latest batch of England strikers than the hero of our one and only triumphant World Cup campaign. For Geoff Hurst, who scored a hat-trick in the 1966 final, there’s one man that’s been particularly catching his eye.
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Unsurprisingly, that man is Harry Kane. The Tottenham Hotspur forward, who has already scored 29 goals in all competition so far this season, is set to make his Three Lions debut against Lithuania tomorrow night, with the weight of expectation firmly on his shoulders.
The Premier League’s joint-leading scorer, with 19 in the current campaign, has now been lavished with praise by a man 52-years his senior, with Hurst even comparing the 21-year-old to Germany’s World Cup winning forward Thomas Muller.
Muller, 25, has scored 26 goals in 62 games for his country, as well as 70 in 190 league games for club side Bayern Munich, who he’s already helped lead to eleven major honours, despite having only made his professional debut for the club in 2008.
Speaking about the comparison, Hurst told Goal.com: “The player I really liken him to is Thomas Muller. When you first see Muller or Kane play, they look like the most unlikely footballer you have seen but they are so effective.
“Muller may look a bit clumsy but he is one of the best players in the world. Bill Shankly once said ‘Peter Osgood is very deceptive, he’s much slower than you think’. I feel the same when I watch Harry Kane. He’s much better than you think.
“In the first 10 minutes of a match, he doesn’t look like the kind of player who is going to cause you all sorts of problems but, for whatever reason, it works. He is a brilliant team player and that is the starting point because he works so hard.
“He has good technique and intelligence and, most importantly for a striker, he comes alive in the penalty box and he is a finisher. He scores goals from all sorts of angles and situations.
“In England I would also liken him to Teddy Sheringham in that he has that football intelligence. He may not have the pace but he is a yard ahead of the game with his thoughts.”