Other clubs have won more trophies, but Tottenham Hotspur top one particular table — no one else has provided as many England internationals over the years.
Seventy players have donned England’s colours while plying their trade at White Hart Lane.
They include some of the greats of the game: England’s second- and fourth-highest goalscorers, Gary Lineker and Jimmy Greaves; a World Cup winner, in Martin Peters, even if he was a West Ham player in 1966; the inspiration behind the surge to the semi-finals in 1990, Paul Gascoigne, and two of the team who reached the last four in Euro ’96, Teddy Sheringham and Darren Anderton.
Include players of the calibre of Sol Campbell, Alan Mullery, Chris Waddle, Ray Clemence, Glenn Hoddle and the future World Cup-winning manager Alf Ramsey, and Tottenham’s contribution to the country’s cause has been considerable.
RELATED:
— Leading from the front: Harry Kane has burned bright under spotlight
— Harry Kane making ‘sensational’ progress according to Michael Carrick
— Harry Kane in line for England start with Daniel Sturridge injured
Now they are set to supply a 71st senior international, one whose startling rise has already prompted comparisons with illustrious players from England’s past.
Harry Kane has seemed unstoppable in a fantastic five months, and his path to a place in England’s starting 11 has been eased after the withdrawal of the injured Daniel Sturridge.
Kane had already accelerated to the front of the pack of the prolific uncapped, seeing off West Bromwich Albion’s Saido Berahino, Queens Park Rangers’ Charlie Austin and Burnley’s Danny Ings to become the striking newcomer in Roy Hodgson’s squad.
He overtook Sergio Aguero at the weekend when his hat-trick against Leicester City took him alongside Diego Costa at the top of the goalscoring charts.
Even Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick, rarely one for hyperbole, described his impact as “sensational”.
English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke used Kane’s success to propose an increase in home-grown players in Premier League squads.
He has become ubiquitous and arrives on the international scene with comparisons to illustrious predecessors abounding.
He has been likened to both halves of the Euro ’96 strike force, and one of them, Alan Shearer, has championed Kane’s case.
Tim Sherwood, who gave Kane an opportunity in the Tottenham team, said last week: “He’s a little bit different to Shearer. There’s a little bit of Teddy Sheringham in there. If he can mould them together a little cocktail of Shearer and Sheringham, he ain’t done bad.”
Shearer and Sheringham were the spearhead and the striker for England who started slightly deeper.
It explains why Les Ferdinand, another of Sherwood’s coaching team and a man who led the line for both Tottenham and England, said in January: “I’d call Harry a nine and a half. He can hold up the ball [with his] back to goal. He’s very dynamic in his movement, wants to be heading towards goal every time he gets the ball. But if he needs to drop back and thicken up the midfield, he can play as a No 10.”
Above all, Kane can score. A total of 29 goals this season is testament to his relentless quest to find the net.
Coincidentally, it is the same number Danny Welbeck, a rival for a place in the England attack to face Lithuania on Friday night, scored in his entire Manchester United career, which was one reason Louis van Gaal deemed Welbeck surplus to requirements at Old Trafford.
The Arsenal man has often compensated with selfless endeavour but, as Kane proves, nothing catapults a player into the spotlight quite like goals.
Kane’s have been scrappy and superb, scored with left foot, right foot and head. He mustered three against the bottom side in the league, Leicester, and two against the top, Chelsea.
The common denominator is that he has put the ball in the net, which has moved one constant talking point to the brink of irrelevance.
After January’s double, Mauricio Pochettino was bemused to be asked if he knew that Kane, who has always said he wanted to play for England, qualifies for the Republic of Ireland.
Should he take the field against Lithuania, he will not any longer.
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE