With four goals in Bayern Munich’s game against Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday, Harry Kane became the highest-scoring English player in European Cup/Champions League history.
Harry Kane has broken the record for the most goals by an English player in European Cup/Champions League history, following his four goals in Bayern Munich’s 2024-25 Matchday 1 game against at the Allianz Arena.
The England captain and all-time national team top scorer now has 33 UEFA Champions League goals to his name, overtaking Wayne Rooney’s 30 goals in the competition, all of which were scored for Manchester United.
It was Rooney’s goalscoring record that Kane had surpassed for the national team in March 2023, while Kane also eclipsed Rooney’s Premier League goal tally in May 2023 before his move from Tottenham Hotspur to Bayern Munich just months later.
His four goals versus Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday were the most that he’s ever scored in a UCL match, while it was his second hat-trick in the competition, with his first coming in Tottenham’s 3-0 win over APOEL Nicosia in September 2017.
Kane also became the first player in European Cup/Champions League history to score a hat-trick of penalties in a single match.
Kane didn’t make his Champions League debut until after his 23rd birthday, with his first Champions League goal coming for Tottenham versus Monaco in November 2016 aged 23 years, 117 days old.
Compare that to Rooney, who made his debut in the competition aged just 18 years and 340 days when scoring a hat-trick in Manchester United’s win over Fenerbahçe, and Kane’s accomplishment becomes even more impressive.
While at Spurs, Kane scored 21 times in 32 Champions League games, but last season he scored more times in a single UCL season than ever before, as he fired eight goals in 12 appearances for Bayern Munich before they exited the competition in the semi-finals to eventual winners Real Madrid.
- Top Scoring English Players in the European Cup/Champions League
- Harry Kane – 33 goals
- Wayne Rooney – 30 goals
- Raheem Sterling – 27 goals
- Paul Scholes – 24 goals
- Frank Lampard – 23 goals
- Steven Gerrard – 21 goals
- Andrew Cole – 18 goals
- David Beckham – 16 goals
- Phil Foden – 15 goals
- Theo Walcott – 15 goals
Among all active players, Raheem Sterling is the next highest-scoring male English player in the Champions League with 27 goals. The on-loan Arsenal man would have had to spend another year out of the competition had he stayed at Chelsea, but now gets a chance to increase his goal tally with the Gunners’ in 2024-25.
Who knows, we could very easily see two players go past Rooney’s 30-goal record this campaign.
In the pre-UCL era of the European Cup, the top-scoring English player was Dennis Viollet, who scored 13 goals for Manchester United between 1956 and 1958.
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