Kane becomes second highest goal scorer in Premier League

Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur became the first English Premier League (EPL) player to score 10 header goals in a season. He is also ranked second for the most career goals in the EPL.

Kane scored the winning header goal in first-half injury time during an EPL home match against Crystal Palace on Saturday. Kane found the net with a header after Pedro Porro supplied a cross from the right of the penalty box. It was his 26th league goal and his 10th header this season. According to Opta, a sports statistics company, Kane is the first EPL footballer to score 10 goals in one season. A 193-centimeter-tall striker Duncan Ferguson scored nine headers out of 11 goals he made at Everton during the 1997-1998 season. Kane is 188 centimeters.

As Kane scored his 209th EPL career goal on Saturday, he overtook Wayne Rooney’s record of 208 goals in 491 matches and is ranked in second position. “I want to keep scoring goals so to pass someone like Wayne Rooney, one of the best players in this country, is a special feeling,” said Kane. Alan Shearer holds the EPL’s top record with 260 goals. He played for 441 matches until he retired at the age of 36 and scored 0.59 goals on average per game. Kane has played for 317 league matches so far and scored 0.66 goals on average per game. He can surpass Shearer’s record in two to three seasons if he maintains the current scoring trend. Forty out of his 209 goals are headers.

The 1-0 win against Crystal Palace was Tottenham Hotspur’s first win in one month after a match against Brighton on April 8. The team’s performance has been sluggish, with one tie and three losses for the recent four matches. With the winning points of 57 (17 wins, six ties, and 12 losses), Tottenham Hotspur is now ranked No. 6. However, the team had three more games than Brighton ranked No. 7 with the winning points of 57. Son Heung-min played from the beginning of the match until the 44th-minute mark in the second half but did not score any offensive points.


Dong-Wook Kim creating@donga.com