Harry Kane was addressing the media ahead of England’s opening World Cup fixture against Croatia just as Norway completed a 4-1 victory over Iraq. When asked whether he had noticed Erling Haaland’s brace, or Kylian Mbappe’s two goals for France earlier, he smiled knowingly. The chase for the Golden Boot had officially begun, and Kane was well aware of the competition he faced.

A Swedish journalist, hoping for a kind word about his compatriots Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres after both scored against Tunisia, asked Kane to name the best strikers in the tournament.

“If you look at the one playing right now, Erling, and Mbappe scoring a couple for France earlier, they’ve both had fantastic years as goalscorers and strikers, two of the top, top players,” Kane said. “They’ve obviously both started the tournament really well today, so yeah, apart from Sweden, I’ll probably vote with those two as two of the best in the World Cup.”

That was before Lionel Messi netted a hat-trick against Algeria, equalling Miroslav Klose’s record of 16 World Cup goals. Haaland later posted on social media, calling Messi “a madman.” Among football’s elite, all eyes are on each other — and they surely know that Kane scored 61 goals for Bayern Munich this season, more than any of his rivals.

Wayne Rooney has called him England’s greatest player, and few would argue he is the finest of the modern era — a footballer who has honed his natural ability through relentless dedication and discipline.

Statisticians often claim finishing is not a repeatable skill, that players eventually align with their expected goals metrics. But Kane has repeatedly defied that logic. According to Understat, he exceeded his expected Bundesliga goals by 6.42 this season. Last year he beat his xG by 1.16, the year before by 2.88, and the season prior — still at Tottenham Hotspur — by 6.94. You would have to look back five years to find a campaign where Kane didn’t surpass his expected goals. Even Cristiano Ronaldo, for most of his career, has followed his xG curve almost exactly.

Watching Kane’s 36 Bundesliga goals this season reveals a few patterns. His penalty technique is excellent — a skill that could prove crucial in the World Cup. He often uses a stuttered run-up but occasionally switches to a direct strike to keep goalkeepers uncertain. He is dominant in the air, deadly with his left foot, and his right foot remains one of the most precise and powerful weapons in world football — a clinical tool honed to perfection.

Inside the penalty area, Kane drives the ball with pace into his target corners. From distance, he prefers finesse, bending his efforts beyond outstretched goalkeepers. He’s also a master poacher, reading rebounds before they drop and anticipating crosses with uncanny precision.

Every major tournament sees Kane as England’s talisman, but perhaps never more than now, as he leads the team into this campaign in North America.

“I would say from a personal point of view, it’s the best season that I’ve ever had,” Kane said. “First and foremost, obviously scoring a lot more goals than what I have in any other previous season, which is obviously pleasing. But I think also just physically and mentally, the way the season ended for me was obviously in a great way, to win the league and win the cup final and to score the three goals there, I think it just gave me even more momentum coming into the pre-camp with the boys.

“Just from a physical point of view, just feel in great shape in the training sessions and in the matches that we played, so throughout your career you need a lot of things to go your way and fall into place at the right time, and I feel like it has for this tournament, so for sure it’s one of the best opportunities we will have as a team to win it.”

Kane’s connection with the World Cup has been eventful. In Qatar four years ago, he missed a crucial penalty against France as England were eliminated in the quarter-finals. He had earlier won the Golden Boot in 2018 when England reached the semi-finals, though he appeared fatigued in the latter stages, particularly in the extra-time loss to Croatia — the same team they now face again in Dallas.

“I think obviously a lot of time has passed since that game, and a lot of experiences have been gained,” Kane said. “We expect a tough game, Croatia are always a well-organised side, they have some great technical players who can be dangerous, so we need to be ready for that. But I think from our point of view, we feel like when we’re at our very best, we’re an extremely tough team to beat, both from a physical point of view and a technical point of view as well.

“All the experiences over all the tournaments, I think you can learn from them a little bit. But I’d say it’s been a long time, I think the team was in a totally different place back then, hadn’t been far in a tournament for a long time. We’ve been able to reach semi-finals and finals since then, and I think that will boost the confidence as well.”

Kane has arrived in North America with a singular ambition: to bring the World Cup home. Yet the Golden Boot remains firmly in his sights. And should he achieve both, there is every chance he will be donning a sharp suit and lifting the Ballon d’Or in Paris at year’s end.