Comparing how long it took Harry Kane to score 70 international goals with Messi and Ronaldo
Harry Kane has now scored 70 international goals for England, but how quickly did he reach that tally compared to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo? We’ve crunched the numbers.
Having scored 70 international goals, Kane is now the eighth-highest active goalscorer in international football, only trailing Neymar, Robert Lewandowski, Ali Mabkhout, Romelu Lukaku, Sunil Chhetri, Messi and Ronaldo.
Kane became England’s outright top scorer in March 2023, when he scored his 54th international goal to overtake Wayne Rooney’s record.
Since that point, the Bayern Munich forward has added another 16 goals to his tally and he doesn’t look like slowing down soon.
Kane had a tremendous scoring record while working with Thomas Tuchel at club level and the pair seem to be excited to be working together once again.
In total, the England skipper has played 45 games under Tuchel and he’s scored 44 goals, averaging a strike every 89.4 minutes.
If he manages to maintain that sort of scoring record for England going forward, it won’t be long until he’s closing in on 100 international goals.
The 31-year-old has been a goalscoring machine throughout his career, although he recently revealed that his impressive scoring record is sometimes taken for granted.
“It’s like when [Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Lionel] Messi were throwing these crazy numbers out there and the next season they’d score 40 goals instead of 50. It was like they were having a bad season,” Kane told reporters.
“People take it for granted and maybe a little bit with England as well. I’ve scored 69 goals and when you score against Albania or Latvia, or these teams, people just expect it so it’s not spoken about so much.
“If I was 25 now and doing what I’m doing, the excitement around me would maybe be a little bit different to what it is now. That’s part of where we are with football. I’ve seen it with some other players as they get into their 30s.
“Maybe people just get a little bit bored of what you do, but I’m certainly not bored. I’m excited for these games and the games ahead.”
To illustrate just how impressive Kane’s international record is, we’ve compared how long it took him to reach 70 international goals with Messi and Ronaldo.
Impressively, Kane managed to reach that tally in fewer appearances than both players, having played 104 games for England as of writing.
Here’s the full breakdown of how long it took each player to score 70 international goals:
How long it took Kane to score 70 international goals:
Appearances: 104
Goals: 70
Assists: 19
Goals and assists: 89
Penalties: 23
Minutes per goal: 115.2
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 171.6
Minutes per goal or assist: 90.6
How long it took Cristiano Ronaldo to score 70 international goals:
Appearances: 137
Goals: 70
Assists: 24
Goals and assists: 94
Penalties: 5
Minutes per goal: 153.2
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 164.9
Minutes per goal or assist: 114.1
How long it took Lionel Messi to score 70 international goals:
Appearances: 138
Goals: 70
Assists: 41
Goals and assists: 111
Penalties: 15
Minutes per goal: 161.3
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 205.2
Minutes per goal or assist: 101.7
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