Harry Kane has equalled one of English football's most enduring records, winning his 125th cap for England against the Czech Republic in the UEFA Nations League on Tuesday to match the mark set by Peter Shilton — a record that has stood for 36 years.

It is a milestone that few could have predicted when a six-year-old Kane turned up to trials at Ridgeway Rovers in east London back in 1999. The youth club, which had famously produced David Beckham a generation earlier, thought they had unearthed a promising young goalkeeper that day. Former coach Dave Bricknell recalls Kane volunteering to go between the sticks during a shooting drill and performing what Bricknell described as heroics — tipping shots over the bar, around the post. The staff were impressed. Then a woman on the touchline quietly suggested they try him outfield.

What followed was a deluge of goals.

Rejected but not deterred

Kane's prolific form for Ridgeway Rovers and his Waltham Forest district side attracted serious attention. Arsenal offered him a place in their academy, where a coach later recalled him finishing second top-scorer behind Benik Afobe. Despite that, the club released him at 11. Watford also passed on the opportunity. The setbacks would have finished lesser characters.

His PE teacher at Chingford Foundation School, Mark Leadon, speaks of a boy who was technically gifted but, crucially, never complacent — a real team player who worked across multiple sports, opening the bowling for the cricket side and batting in the middle order, yet always with football as his north star. His childhood friend Luke Robinson remembers a teenager whose only currency was the game itself, turning up to school at one point sporting a David Beckham Mohican, entirely without irony.

It was Tottenham Hotspur who eventually gave Kane his platform, offering him scholarship terms on his 16th birthday. By his own academy coaches' accounts, he was far from the most naturally gifted in his age group at Spurs. What separated him, they agreed, was an obsessive desire to improve and a clinical understanding of goalkeeping — partly because he had once been one. Former Arsenal academy coach Alex Welsh put it plainly: Kane shoots early, before the goalkeeper is set, because he intuitively knows what a goalkeeper does not want to face.

Records that speak for themselves

The statistics Kane has assembled in an England shirt are extraordinary by any standard. He arrived at Tuesday's game in Prague already his country's all-time leading scorer with 89 goals in 124 appearances — a tally that surpasses Wayne Rooney's previous record. His international debut set the tone: he scored 79 seconds after coming on.

Now 33 and playing his club football for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, Kane has started all four of England's Nations League fixtures during this international break, underlining that he remains central to whatever Thomas Tuchel's side are building. The market and pundits alike continue to view him as indispensable, and it is difficult to argue otherwise.

Shilton's record of 125 caps, accumulated across a distinguished career as one of the world's finest goalkeepers, was widely regarded as untouchable when the legendary shot-stopper retired. Kane has now drawn level with it, and the record — Shilton's or his own — may well belong to the Bayern Munich striker before the next international window is out.

What comes next

England's Nations League campaign continues, and with it the very real prospect of Kane standing alone at the summit of the country's all-time appearance list. There is a pleasing circularity to the story: the boy who briefly looked like becoming a goalkeeper now holds the same number of England caps as the finest goalkeeper the country has ever produced.

  • Harry Kane's England caps: 125 (equalling Peter Shilton)
  • England goals: 89 — the national all-time record
  • Record equalled against: Czech Republic, UEFA Nations League

Frequently asked

How many England caps does Harry Kane have?
Harry Kane has 125 England caps, equalling Peter Shilton's long-standing record as the most-capped England player of all time. He reached the milestone against the Czech Republic in the UEFA Nations League.
Who did Harry Kane equal to become England's most capped player?
Kane equalled former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who set the record of 125 caps during a career that ended more than 36 years ago. Shilton's record had long been considered one of the safest in English football history.
How many goals has Harry Kane scored for England?
Harry Kane has scored 89 goals for England in international football, making him the country's all-time leading scorer. He surpassed Wayne Rooney's previous record during his international career.