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Harry Kane is irreplaceable, but England will eventually need a new number 9. We rank the top 5 candidates to take over from the Three Lions' all-time top scorer, from proven Premier League strikers to rising stars and surprising tactical options.
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00:00There is one part of the England squad that is certainly not in the midst of a golden generation,
00:04the strikers. Since 2018, it's basically been Harry Kane and a far worse option who hopefully
00:08won't have to actually play any meaningful minutes at any point during a major tournament.
00:13The conversation of who will replace Kane has been a source of anxiety in the England set-up
00:16for years, and we are rapidly approaching the time when we have to tackle it head-on.
00:21So, who is the true heir to Harry Kane's England number nine shirt? Or shall we just retire it and
00:26never play with a striker ever again? More on that later, by the way. We've got the five best
00:30options ranked. Let's go. Number five, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, the prem-proven short-term fix.
00:35Calvert-Lewin is only 29. Is that not a bit mental? Put him in the Dwight McNeil category of how
00:40are
00:40you in your 20s? I thought you were 32. McNeil, by the way, is 26. Dwight McNeil is 26 years
00:47old.
00:47Anyway, he can't play up front, so let's move on. Of the existing Kane deputies, him, Tony, Watkins
00:52and Solanke being the main ones, Calvert-Lewin is the youngest and the most in form. He may not
00:57offer the all-round play that the others do, and is certainly not the most durable, but he is
01:02certainly viable and knows where the back of the net is. He's played for England before and feels
01:07like a fairly safe option. You know what you'll get. You'll know how good he is, and he might be
01:11the perfect interim option post-Kane. He's basically the Sam Allardyce of England's strikers, except in
01:17terms of how they view the world. Tony and Watkins playing in Saudi may be good news for
01:22their freshness each summer, and both are certainly good enough to contribute, see Euro 2024, but post-Euro
01:282028, both will be 32, and have been playing in Saudi for a long enough time that their ability
01:32to compete at the highest level can, rightly, be questioned, unless the Saudi lead turns mega
01:37competitive in the next few years, which is not impossible. All things being equal, I would
01:41have Tony and Watkins above Calvert-Lewin, but trajectories have to be taken into account,
01:45so DCL sneaks in at five. Number four, Will Lankshire, a literal Harry Kane replacement.
01:51A young English striker from the Spurs Academy, yeah, screw it, that'll do. He's probably the same.
01:56His move to Middlesbrough made him one of the most expensive championship players ever,
02:00and he's looked a cut above since he made his debut. He's 21, and it's pretty unclear what his
02:04ceiling is, although the fact that Spurs, who are already short on strikers and goals,
02:08were willing to sell him may be a red flag to some, but development is certainly not linear in football.
02:13A few good years at Borough, ideally with a promotion and a season or two in the Premier
02:18League thrown in for good measure, and we will have a better idea of whether Lankshire has what
02:22it takes to play for England. He's highly rated within football, but as someone who admittedly
02:27doesn't know much about him, I'm a bit worried that he's so far off despite being in his early 20s.
02:32Having said that, few would have tipped Kane to have the career he's had for the three lines,
02:36so Lankshire will keep the faith that he can follow the same path, although Kane had made his
02:40debut already at Lankshire's age. Anyway, he's in at four.
02:43Number three, Jude Bellingham as a false nine, England's talisman. Let's get one thing straight,
02:48Bellingham could absolutely do this for England. He is a truly world-class poacher,
02:53he's played there for Real Madrid no less, and to be honest, you could play Bellingham at left-back
02:57and he would still put everything on the line and probably be England's best player.
03:00Even with Kane in the team, Jude was often effectively a second striker,
03:04with England defending and attacking in a 4-4-2 for much of the 2026 World Cup.
03:08Him moving forward would also open up another midfield slot, and given the embarrassment of
03:12riches England have in the 10, Palmer, Rodgers, Ezra, Josh King, Gibbs-White, the overall starting
03:1811 would probably be better off in terms of quality per position than any alternative.
03:23You could even have a split striker situation with Bellingham and Rodgers, for example,
03:28both playing as false nines. It's absolutely not the same level of quality, to be clear,
03:32but Palace did this to good effect in 2017-18 with Townsend and Zaha. Between them,
03:37they had all the ingredients to threaten defences, and absolutely did. Rodgers and
03:41Bellingham are both well-rounded players and would be a nightmare bouncing off each other in a pair.
03:46In the post-Kane era, the priority has to be maximising Bellingham. If that is playing him
03:51as a false nine, then great. But shoehorning him into a position that limits his overall impact
03:56on a game would be counterproductive. Of course, his goals for England are key,
04:00and it is impossible to argue that he is better when closer to goal, but he is best when he
04:04has
04:04freedom to run everywhere. He's not an elite hold-up player, and his passing is not the
04:08same level of Kane, meaning his link-up play probably wouldn't be as strong. It's still
04:13not totally clear what his best position is, but if you had to say one, it's a second striker.
04:17And who knows, with the right players around him, this might work. I just fear that a Saka,
04:22Bellingham, Gordon front three lacks something. Physicality, explosiveness, coherence. England
04:27aren't a possession-heavy team, and the post-Kane era can be a gateway into trying strikers who are
04:32physically dominant, win their duels, and work in teams that are sat back, like England often are.
04:37I'm not sure Jude is that. We will probably see this at some point for England in a major tournament.
04:41If it works, we are sorted. But I think there are better options, such as...
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05:20Number two, Liam DeLapp, the original heir who is rebuilding his career. Ranking Liam DeLapp above
05:25Jude Bellingham in any context feels completely wrong, but here we are. DeLapp has been touted as
05:29the obvious successor to Kane since he was at Ipswich, and possibly even earlier when he broke
05:34into the City first team, albeit momentarily. You might think this is high, considering his time
05:38at Chelsea was, at best, underwhelming, at worst, embarrassing at times. But let's have some
05:43perspective. He's only 23 years old, this is his third season of Premier League football,
05:47and he's already looking reborn at Forrest. They deemed him worthy of a £50 million transfer fee,
05:52and whether you agree with that or not, it did still happen. He can score goals,
05:56has room to develop, and is a mean striker of a ball. But the biggest plus, he is a battering
06:01ram
06:02of a striker, who can stretch the fences and hold the ball up equally well. That is something England
06:06have lacked when Kane has played up front, even if the positives have obviously outweighed the
06:11negatives. The recent world champions have not had Harry Kane-level strikers up front.
06:15To run through them, the last few starting world champion strikers are Ozebel, Julian Alvarez,
06:21Olivier Giroud and Miroslav Klose. Of course, legends for their achievements,
06:26but when you take into account their age and performance levels in the runs they had,
06:30you realise that a number nine is not the be-all and end-all to win the World Cup.
06:34My point is, De Lapp will be a mighty handful for most centre-backs, and occupying them to free
06:39up Bellingham, Saka, Rashford, Palmer, whoever, will be worth just as much as a few goals.
06:45De Lapp is, right now, the most likely choice to be Kane's successor,
06:49but there is one more name who excites me more than anyone.
06:53Number one, Brian Madjo. We only needed one game to know. Madjo has only played 72 minutes for Aston
07:00Villa, yet he's number one on the list. What? How does that work? But what are 72 minutes?
07:06Against PSG in the Super Cup, Madjo was brilliant. The youngest starter in the competition's history,
07:12and the youngest goalscorer too. He announced himself on the world stage, and then some,
07:16pinning Pacho multiple times, finding space at will in the box, and capping off his ridiculous
07:22first-half bully ball session with a weak-foot volley into the roof of the net. Madjo got all
07:27of Europe excited. Aston Villa spent £10 million on him on his 17th birthday in a signing driven by
07:33Unai Emery. £10 million for 2026 PSR Strangled Villa is basically like Chelsea spending £100 million
07:39on someone. It's a show of faith. They wanted him to play at the back end of the 25-26
07:44season,
07:44but FIFA regulations blocked Villa from having him in their matchday squads. Long story short,
07:49he was born in London, but grew up in Luxembourg, so technically counted as a foreign player,
07:53where rules are stricter around signing for the first team at a young age. Anyway,
07:57it was eventually all sorted, and he started the Super Cup, then scored, then got injured.
08:01He is young. He is raw. He has flaws. But his physical profile is absolutely ridiculous,
08:06to put it bluntly, and if he can combine his natural gift of a physique with even a decent level
08:11of consistency in link-up and goal-scoring, he will be borderline impossible to defend.
08:15It's similar logic to why Liam DeLapp could be so effective for England,
08:19except with actually being really good at football being another possible avenue.
08:22Sometimes, as a fan, you just see it. And against the best team in the world, albeit in a glorified
08:28pre-season friendly, Madjo looked like he belonged at the top level. In fact, he looked like someone who
08:32could play for England tomorrow and not look out of place. Madjo is young enough, but good enough,
08:37to be called up for England and learn from Kane for the rest of his time with the national team.
08:41Give him some minutes off the bench, the odd start away at Andorra for the next few years,
08:46but make his main task be listen to and do literally everything Kane tells you to.
08:51Imagine Harry Kane's ruthlessness and football brain with the body of Brian Madjo. Could anyone
08:57on planet Earth stop that? That is basically Erling Haaland. The key to the post-Kane era will be
09:02blooding the successes ahead of time. We all know that the next England striker will not be as
09:07good as Harry Kane because Harry Kane is England's greatest player since 1966 and you do not just
09:12spawn another one of them from nowhere. We do not know what the future of the number nine will look
09:17like. But what we do know is that we have an abundance of attacking talent elsewhere and the
09:21short-term goal should be to maximise their goal scoring. Forget Brian Madjo, Liam DeLapp and Will
09:27Lancashire for a second. Post-Harry Kane, it will be down to Jude Bellingham, Makai Saka, Cole Palmer,
09:32Morgan Rodgers et al. to deliver the good as senior established international players.
09:37And who knows, maybe the next Harry Kane is in your team's academy right now, waiting to be called
09:42up for the 2030 World Cup. How many would have predicted Elliot Anderson being England's number
09:46six in the US after the Euro 2024 final? Or that Dan Byrne and Jed Spence would capture the hearts
09:52of a
09:52nation even in March of this year? Football is unpredictable. Maybe it will just be Eddie and
09:57Katya after all. I certainly hope so.