Gary Lineker believes Tottenham striker Harry Kane should already be recognised as one the world’s best players and believes his price tag soared past the £100m mark long ago.

In an exclusive interview with the Yahoo Sport, former Spurs and England striker Lineker suggested Kane joined game’s A-list performers as he claimed the Premier League’s top scorer accolade for the last two season, as he suggested he is good enough to play for any of the world’s top clubs.

It is lavish praise from a football legend who is rarely so forthcoming in his eulogies, with Lineker convinced Kane is destined for greatness as he prepares for Tottenham’s first Premier League game of the season at Newcastle today.

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“Make no mistake, Harry Kane is the real deal,” BT Sport presenter Lineker told Yahoo Sport.

“The value on a striker like Harry Kane in this transfer market is hard to calculate, but clearly he has been in the £100m-plus category for some time now,” continues former Barcelona forward Lineker.

“If you look at Manchester United signing a deal worth in excess of £80m to take Romelu Lukaku from Everton, then you would say that Kane is ahead of Lukaku for sure.

“His all round game is much better and while both will probably score a similar amount of goals this season, Kane is the player you would pick out of the two.

“Where could go Kane be in a few years time? That remains to be seen and while Spurs will hope he stays with them, you can see a scenario where one of the big clubs might look at him.

“I stand by my statement from last season that he was better than their current striker Karim Benzema and feel Kane could play for a big club like Real Madrid right now if he wanted to.

“I like Benzema, he is a very good centre-forward, but I think if I played in that Real Madrid team, I would score a goal every game and I think Kane is good enough to play at that stature of club.”





Lineker, who scored 48 goals for England and 80 goals for Tottenham in 138 appearances between 1989 and 1992 suggests Kane is close to being the finished article as a striker at the age of 24, but he has one area of concern for the Spurs No.10.

“I don’t think he needs to improve in too many areas at this stage,” added Lineker. “He just needs to keep doing what he has been doing for the last three seasons and he has proved he can deal with the pressure of where he is now.

“Strikers are always under pressure. You go five games without a goal and people will tell you it is a crisis. Then you score for two or three games in a row and the same people will say they never doubted you. It’s what you become accustomed to as a top class striker and that is what Harry Kane is, without a doubt.

“He wants to take all the penalties, the free-kicks, any opportunity to score a goal, Kane wants to be there and all the best goal scorers have that.”

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