Anxieties about endings framed the question heading into the 2026 World Cup, with England’s captain, Harry Kane, set to move across the Atlantic at age 32. According to ESPN, it will almost certainly be his last World Cup as England’s leader and as one of the sport’s most feared forwards.
England’s performances in March — a draw with Uruguay and a defeat to Japan without Kane in the side — offered a glimpse of a Kane-less future. Sections of the press described the team as looking “lost and confused” and getting a “grim glimpse of life” without their talisman, according to ESPN.
That concern rests on a remarkable run that stretches back more than four decades. ESPN notes that since Tony Woodcock was replaced by Gary Lineker in the 72nd minute of England’s 1-1 draw with Scotland at Hampden Park on May 26, 1984, a sequence of top-class No. 9s has followed. One, or a combination, of Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane has led England’s attack at every major tournament in which the team has qualified from the 1986 World Cup to the present day.
That production line has yielded substantial returns, delivering 249 international goals (and counting), two World Cup Golden Boots, 11 top-flight Golden Boots, three all-time club top goalscorers and 11 Player of the Season awards, ESPN reports. A cohort of reliable forwards — including Teddy Sheringham, Les Ferdinand, Ian Wright, Robbie Fowler, Emile Heskey, Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch — has also supported England across that period.
Emile Heskey told ESPN that the traditional No. 9 role has changed, with fewer players aspiring to the position and more opting for wider, creative roles. ESPN adds that France offers a near parallel with a line of versatile attackers — Jean-Pierre Papin, Eric Cantona, Thierry Henry, David Trézéguet, Karim Benzema and Kylian Mbappé — and that France’s sequence has translated into World Cup wins in 1998 and 2018. According to ESPN, what follows for England after Kane steps away remains unclear.
