Ryan Mason will be hoping he can join some of these England gre….only joking!
No-one cares that it’ll be his England debut too. Tonight is Harry Kane night!
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And with good reason; the in-form Tottenham striker has taken the Premier League by storm this season and has rightly received an international call-up from Roy Hodgson.
His international career looks set to begin tonight in England’s Euro 2016 qualifier against Lithuania and the 21-year-old will no doubt be wanting to make as big a mark as possible from the off.
But just who could he take inspiration from? We look at eight England debuts Kane should try and replicate tonight to go down in the annuls of Three Lions history.
Oh and Ryan Mason too…
8) Francis Jeffers
Jeffers made his England debut alongside Wayne Rooney but my, oh my, how differently the careers of the two boys from Merseyside would end up being. His first and only appearance for the national side was against Australia in a 3-1 defeat in which he miraculously managed to bag the opener.
But perhaps the nostalgia of looking back on Jeffers’ debut as memorable and one of England’s ‘best’ is more to do with the schadenfreude one feels about his proceeding career collapse rather than anything he actually did.
7) Alan Shearer
Perhaps an Englishman couldn’t ask for a greater international debut opportunity than facing the French, well Shearer certainly couldn’t with the future legend scoring the opener against Les Bleus, the first of his 63 goals for the Three Lions.
6) Tony Adams
The rock at the heart of the national side’s defence for many years but it all started against Spain in 1987 partnering the living embodiment of the English lionheart; Terry Butcher.
It was such an impressive performance that the 21-year-old Arsenal man, who in the same year went on to become the Gunners youngest ever captain, was called-up again only two months after and was later part of the 1988 Euros squad
5) Darius Vassell
Ah that legendary front three of Heskey – Vassell – Rickets. What a strike force.
Though for all the guffawing and sniggering at that forward line, Vassell announced himself on the international stage with a quite unbelievable overhead kick against Holland in Amsterdam – winning the Man of the Match gong for his efforts.
4) Steve Bull
The debut Jay Bothroyd would have wanted to make.
Then in the third tier of English football Steve Bull was called up for a Rous Cup match against Scotland at Hampden Park.
With just eight minutes to go, Bull managed to control a long ball quite unbelievably with the back of his neck – all that long ball football they play in the lower divisions helping the neck muscles clearly – and slot the ball past Jim Leighton in goal.
3) Dennis Wise
Wise may have only scored one England goal, but you can’t ask for a better one than on your debut that turned out to be the match winner that keep England’s hopes of qualifying for Euro 1992 alive.
Hero.
No wonder John Terry admitted to warming his toilet seat in his young Chelsea days.
2) Kieran Richardson
Richardson was the architecht of an escape from relegation so ridiculous and improbable for West Bromwich Albion in 2004/05 that Steve McQueen should play him in the movie.
The decision to call him up just months after this was equally as improbably and ridiculous and met with some derision in the press but that was quickly erased from memory when after two minutes Richardson put England ahead against the USA before curling a free-kick into the top corner in the second half.
1) Rickie Lambert
Lambert’s call-up to the England squad gave welcome to such media fawning and patronising over a ‘working class hero’ who had somehow made it to the top that you’d think it was more the plot of that fabled footballing trilogy ‘Goal’ than a run of the mill English striker who is semi-decent.
But no! The media wanted you to believe this was a real-life Santiago Munez – just ignore that he already had 46 goals in his previous 86 games and was actually quite alright. Shhhh.
But whatever the narrative, debuts don’t get much more sweet than a winning goal in the dying seconds against Scotland with your first touch in international football, after just coming on as a substitute.
William Wallace, Alex Salmond your boys took one hell…etc.