Spurs star Harry Kane: It would be good for Premier League to have homegrown golden boot winner

Harry Kane PA Wire/Press Association Images

Tottenham’s Harry Kane believes it would be good for the Premier League if a homegrown player wins the golden boot, having moved ahead of Jamie Vardy at the top of the goalscoring chart.

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The last Englishman to win the award was Sunderland’s Kevin Phillips, 16 years ago.

But Kane is leading the way this season, having struck his 20th and 21st top-flight goals in Sunday’s 3-0 home win over Bournemouth, while Leicester striker Vardy is two behind on 19.

Kane feels the battle is good for English football and is keen to prove that the top clubs do not necessarily need to look abroad to find talent.

“It would be great for the Englishman that does it and great for the country,” he said. “That’s what this country wants - players scoring goals and creating goals, and we’ve got plenty of that at the moment.

“If I can be a role model or if I can maybe make another manager play a young player coming through, rather than buy a player, that’s incredible.

“I think sometimes managers like to buy players from abroad because they’re more experienced when they’ve got players under their nose that will give everything to the club they’ve been brought up with.

“The more that people get chances at a young age, I think you’ll see more talent coming through, as we have done this season [at Tottenham].”

Kane’s early brace on Sunday means he has already matched the 21 league goals he scored in his stunning breakthrough season last term.

“Of course that was a goal of mine, to better what I did last season,” he said. “After the first few games there was a lot of talk about whether I would, but I’ve stayed focused and it’s great to get to 21 in the league.

“There are plenty more games to go and hopefully I can finish with more than I did last season and see what I end up on.”

Kane has already scored 45 Premier League goals, at the age of 22, and has become only the fifth Englishman to register 20 or more in successive seasons, following in the footsteps of Andy Cole, Les Ferdinand, Robbie Fowler and Alan Shearer, who is the all-time record scorer with 260.

“It’s not bad company at all,” said the Spurs man. “As a striker that’s what I want to do. I want to score as many goals as possible to help my team. It’s great to break that 20-goal mark again but the most important thing for me is that we’re winning points.”

Asked about Shearer’s record, Kane said: “It’s a lot of goals and I’m still a long way off but he was an idol of mine growing up - to see how many goals he scored was incredible. I take it season by season. I don’t like looking too far ahead because you never know what can happen.

“But they’re the goals you dream of. When you’re a younger player, you watch them scoring goals week in and week out so to be doing that now is a dream come true. Hopefully I keep working hard and keep getting better and better and scoring as much as possible.”

In previous seasons Spurs have frequently slipped up in the league following Thursday night Europa League outings. However, they have now won their last three top-fight fixtures after continental clashes, overcoming Swansea, Aston Villa and a Bournemouth side that had won their three previous matches.

“I think we’ve got a bigger squad, maybe a better squad - players that can rotate in and out,” said Kane. “Players are maybe getting a bit more rest than they did last year.

“The manager manages it well - the workload, how much we’ve been doing and he keeps everyone fresh. Everyone looked fresh out there yesterday, everyone that came on, and that’s all you can ask for.

“As a player you want to play every game but the manager has to make his decisions and you have to deal with it.

“He chose not to play me midweek [against Borussia Dortmund], and the week before [in the first leg], and I managed to score two braces in the Premier League. I feel fresh and ready to go and I’m looking forward to the international games ahead.”

Follow me on Twitter @BenPearceSpurs