Harry Kane can be like Teddy Sheringham and play until he is 40

Gareth Southgate believes Harry Kane can keep playing at the top for another decade after backing the Tottenham Hotspur striker to emulate Teddy Sheringham at the end of a season in which he has proved he is getting even better with age.

Former Spurs and England forward Sheringham played in the Premier League for West Ham United aged 40 and earned his final international cap aged 36.

Kane will celebrate his 30th birthday in July, but there has been evidence this season that England’s captain is somehow still improving. He could beat his highest-scoring league campaign by hitting a hat-trick against Leeds United in Sunday’s final game.

Should he net a brace, then Kane will become the first player ever to score 30-plus goals in two separate 38-game Premier League seasons.

Manchester United are expected to step up their pursuit of Kane once the season has finished and England manager Gareth Southgate believes his star man will stay at the top for a long time to come – wherever he is playing.

Karim Benzema is still playing for Real Madrid aged 35, while Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski is a year younger and Southgate said: “I’d be thinking of a Sheringham type that wasn’t relying on speed to score goals or to have an impact on the game. He looked after himself very well and he was going strong at that sort of age. There’s no reason Harry won’t be able to do the same.”

Aside from his 28 goals and assuming he plays against Leeds, this will be the first time since 2015-16 that Kane will have appeared in every one of Tottenham’s 38 League games and he has now not suffered a significant injury for over three years.

Manchester City’s Erling Haaland collected his Footballer of the Year award this week, but, heading into the final weekend, Kane had scored a greater share of Tottenham’s goals (42.4 per cent) than the Norwegian (38.7 per cent) has for the League champions.

Kane’s goals have been worth 24 points to Spurs this season, which is only matched by Haaland, and his improvement is all the more impressive given it has been made in a team that has been getting worse.

If Spurs remain in eighth place or below, it will be the Premier League’s lowest-ever finish by a club with a player who has scored more than 25 goals. Blackburn and Sunderland both finished seventh with Alan Shearer scoring 31 and Kevin Phillips hitting 30.

Kane will have scored in 26 different games this season should he net against Leeds, having already set a 38-game season League record by making it 25 matches against Brentford last weekend.

“He’s still performing at a fabulous level,” said Southgate. “With Harry, it’s the whole game, it’s not just the goals. It’s the quality of passing and the reliability of hold-up play as well. You get more than just a goalscorer.

“I don’t see any deterioration. If anything, physically, he has got through the last two seasons better. He hasn’t had the injury problems. I know that’s a consequence of further hours of dedication to recovery and physical strength. He gets the rewards.

“There’s no secret to these things, no mystery. The more you work, the more dedicated you are…I was looking at Luka Modric. He’s played 63 games this season yet we’re talking about resting players. There’s a reason that he’s got 165 caps. He never misses. He’s completely focused and completely dedicated. Harry will give himself the best chance of getting 100-plus caps and however many goals.”