Harry Kane is set to win his 100th England cap, which would leave him another 26 go to go break the men's record
Harry Kane is set to become an England centenarian(Image credit: Getty Images)
England striker Harry Kane looks set to earn his 100th cap against Finland on Tuesday evening.
Kane is set to become just the tenth man ever to bring up a century of caps for England, joining Peter Shilton, Wayne Rooney, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Bobby Moore, Ashley Cole, Sir Bobby Charlton, Frank Lampard and Billy Wright.
Shilton holds England men's all-time caps record, with the goalkeeper playing for his country 125 times from 1970 to 1990 - giving Kane still some way to go to set a new record. So how long would he need to keep playing to take it?
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Harry Kane can break England men's caps record in next two years
England will play another four games after Tuesday, with Nations League games against Greece and Finland in October before they complete the set against Greece and Ireland in November. That would take Kane to 104 if he appears in all of them.
The qualifying groups for the 2026 World Cup are yet to be drawn, but England will have either six or ten games as part of that, depending what size group they are drawn in. They will probably arrange friendlies to make up the numbers if they are in a smaller group, however, so let's call it another 10 games through 2025. That would be 114.
There's another international window in March 2026, which is another two friendlies...assuming England don't need two play-off games, anyway. There's another opportunity two friendlies in June 2026 just before the World Cup kicks off. That's 118.
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Peter Shilton won 125 England caps (Image credit: Getty Images)
That means that if he had played in every other possible game before the tournament, Harry Kane would need to feature in seven games at the World Cup 2026 to equal Shilton's record, or eight to break it.
The expansion from 32 teams to 48 means there are still three group stage games but an additional round of 32 in the knockouts, for a total of a maximum of five knockout games (with the third-place playoff guaranteeing a fifth for all four semi-finalists).
So, if Kane played every single game England could possibly play, the earliest he could break Shilton's record would be at the World Cup final or third-place play-off in 2026.
Wayne Rooney holds the men's record for most caps for an outfielder (Image credit: Getty Images)
Kane will be less than a couple of weeks shy of his 33rd birthday by that point, so it's not unthinkable - and even if he missed up to five England games, he could still beat Rooney's record of 120 caps for a male outfielder.
Six women have already surpassed 125 caps: Rachel Yankey, Casey Stoney, Alex Scott, Karen Carney, Jill Scott, and all-time record holder Fara Williams, who played 172 games for England from 2001-2019. Lucy Bronze is currently on 124 caps.
Steven Chicken has been working as a football writer since 2009, taking in stints with Football365 and the Huddersfield Examiner. Steven still covers Huddersfield Town home and away for his own publication, WeAreTerriers.com. Steven is a two-time nominee for Regional Journalist of the Year at the prestigious British Sports Journalism Awards, making the shortlist in 2020 and 2023.
