Harry Kane is so “driven to be one of the world’s best” that he constantly compares his statistics to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Southgate has said.

The England manager added that despite his admission that his side were far behind Spain, their coach Julen Lopetegui had told him he was “lucky” to have Kane in his team.

For the record Kane is 24 years and 38 days old and has scored 125 career goals. By the same age Ronaldo, who had admittedly played most of his games as a wide player to that point, had 137 goals. Messi was way out in front on 203. Not that Kane is deterred.

“I was having some interaction with Julen Lopetegui at a game where he was commenting on how lucky I was to have Harry playing,” Southgate said. “He's in top form, but he's also got the mentality to want to be the best. He knew this morning how many goals in games he had, and also how many Ronaldo and Messi had at this point. He's driven to be one of the world's best. Why can't that happen moving forward?”

Kane is a contender to be England captain under Southgate – although Jordan Henderson will retain the armband for the World Cup qualifier against Slovakia at Wembley on Monday – and the manager added: “I have every trust in Harry. I've worked with him long enough, from the Under-21s through, and he'll deliver whatever the occasion.