Bellingham’s brace fired Real Madrid to victory over Barcelona in El Clasico while Kane hit a hat-trick in Bayern Munich’s 8-0 rout of Darmstadt.
Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham continued their stunning starts to life at their new clubs with multi-goal performances over the weekend.
Bellingham’s brace fired Real Madrid to victory over Barcelona in El Clasico while Kane hit a hat-trick in Bayern Munich’s 8-0 rout of Darmstadt in the Bundesliga.
Here, the PA news agency looks at the England duo’s season to date.
- Goals galore
Kane kick-started the second-half scoring in Bayern’s wild win on Saturday, in a game which at half-time was goalless with Bayern playing with 10 men to Darmstadt’s nine.
His eventual treble, completed in the 88th minute and including one from his own half, sees him one ahead of Bellingham in the scoring stakes this season but the latter’s contribution on Saturday stands out as all the more impressive.
With Real trailing to Ilkay Gundogan’s early goal for Barca, Bellingham blasted a stunning 30-yard equaliser midway through the second half before popping up with a close-range volley in stoppage time to give his side the Clasico spoils and a four-point lead over their rivals in LaLiga.
It is the third time this season he has scored twice in a game, following the wins over Almeria and Osasuna, giving him a goal-a-game record in his first 13 games for the Spanish giants.
Kane, in the same number of matches, has 14 goals, including another hat-trick in a 7-0 win over Bochum and a brace against Augsburg.
Both men scored in England’s 3-1 win over Scotland, one of three appearances this season for the national team as they sat out the friendly with Australia. That gives Bellingham 14 goals in 16 games for club and country and Kane, who added a brace against Italy, 17 in 16.
Bellingham, of course, has produced those numbers from an attacking midfield position and while acclimatising to a more advanced role than he had been used to with former clubs Borussia Dortmund and Birmingham, or with England. Kane leads the line and has already benefitted from four penalties for Bayern and another against Italy.
- Brits abroad
Kane and Bellingham are already on their way to establishing themselves among the most prolific English or British players overseas.
Gary Lineker scored 20 goals in his debut LaLiga season with Barcelona, and 52 in 138 games for the club across three seasons in all competitions.
Michael Owen netted 16 times in his one season at Real, where David Beckham won a league title in his fourth and final season and Steve McManaman won two Champions Leagues, scoring in the 2000 final.
Wales’ record scorer Gareth Bale was another British star to ply his trade at the Bernabeu and scored over 100 goals for Real, with nine in his first 13 games – while often operating from the bench – setting up a tally of 22 in his debut season.
Kevin Keegan scored 12 in his first season at Hamburg in 1977-78, a total already surpassed by Kane and Bellingham, while Wales forward Mark Hughes managed only five goals alongside Lineker at Barca and seven in a season on loan at Bayern. Mark Hateley’s most prolific seasons at AC Milan and Monaco brought 11 and 14 goals respectively.
Jadon Sancho, a team-mate of Bellingham at Dortmund, took time to establish himself after moving from Manchester City’s youth academy. He did scored 13 goals in his first season as a regular starter, though eight of those came from December onwards. Tammy Abraham got 27 in his first season at Roma, albeit with nine in the unheralded Europa Conference League.
Bellingham himself scored only 12 league goals in three years with Dortmund – he is only two away from that already with Real, and more than halfway to his 24 in all competitions for the German side..