Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane sets two scoring records as the English soccer’s traditional Boxing Day schedule overflowed with both goals and gripes.
Kane started the day in style, scoring his second hat trick in four days in Spurs’ 5-2 victory over visiting Southampton at Wembley Stadium. Kane’s first goal was his 37th in the Premier League in 2017, breaking Alan Shearer’s 22-year-old record for most goals in a calendar year. Kane had matched Shearer with a hat trick on Saturday, so much of the build up to the Southampton game had centred on his imminent passing of Shearer, the Premier League’s career scoring leader with 260 goals.
The goals-in-a-calendar-year record is something of a manufactured achievement, of course, a measurement of current form as much as anything since it spans two seasons and reflects nothing more than a statistical total, as opposed to a trophy or even a scoring title. But it clearly mattered to Kane, to Tottenham and to Shearer, who congratulated the Spurs star on Tuesday.
It also seemed to take the pressure off Kane. His first goal, in the 22nd minute, was followed by another in the 39th. Six minutes into the second half, Tottenham was coasting, 4-0. Kane completed his hat trick in the 69th minute with a chip over goalkeeper Fraser Forster — his 18th goal this season. Kane, 24, is on pace to win his third straight Premier League scoring title, with three more goals than the second-highest scorer, Mohamed Salah of Liverpool.
“Once I got that, I could just enjoy the game,” Kane said of his first goal Tuesday. “It was nice to finish off with another hat trick. The last two goals allowed Kane to claim another milestone: They gave him 56 for club and country combined in 2017. That is the most for any player in Europe’s top five leagues this year, a distinction that has belonged to either Lionel Messi of Barcelona or Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid in each of the last seven years.
Messi (54) and Ronaldo (53) had been battling for the crown again this year until Kane’s six-goal outburst in his past two games allowed him to surpass both players. With Spain’s Liga on its annual winter break, Messi and Ronaldo won’t be able to catch him. (Spurs has played its final game of 2017 as well.)
“I’m very proud of it,” Kane told reporters after Tuesday’s victory. “Messi and Ronaldo have dominated football for so long. They’re two of the world’s greatest players ever. “I said to the lads before the game to try and set me up and they all did that,” Kane added, “so I’ll have to take them out to dinner or something.”
Source: The New York Times
