England captain Harry Kane believes fans are ‘bored’ by his goalscoring ability

England captain Harry Kane believes he is taken for granted and people are bored by his goalscoring prowess.

The 31-year-old is the country’s record goalscorer with 69 and shows no signs of slowing down as the mission for glory at the 2026 World Cup under Thomas Tuchel begins with the opening qualifier against Albania on Friday night.

Despite his impressive goal record for club and country, where he has scored 76 times in 82 appearances for Bayern Munich, Kane is often criticised for his performances.

“It’s like when Ronaldo and Messi were throwing these crazy numbers out there and the next season they’d score 40 goals instead of 50 and it was like they were having a bad season,” he said.

“People take it for granted and maybe a little bit with England as well. I’ve scored 69 goals and when you score against Albania or Latvia, or these teams, people just expect it so it’s not spoken about so much.

“Say if I was 25 now and doing what I’m doing, the excitement around me would maybe be a little bit different to what it is now.

“Maybe people just get a little bit bored of what you do, but I’m certainly not bored. I’m excited for these games and the games ahead.”

Kane’s goals this season for Bayern have fired them to the brink of the Bundesliga title while they are also in the Champions League quarter-finals, but it has not made him immune to to criticism.

“It’s hard. Sometimes it motivates me. Sometimes, to be honest I try to stay away from it as much as I can,” he added.

“Probably, when I was young I listened to more than what I do now. Ultimately, I criticise myself more than anyone could do on the outside but… always use it as fuel to prove people wrong.

“I know what I’ve done in my career and I feel like I have a lot of respect from a lot of football people out there and I’ve achieved a lot in my career.”

Kane says being at Bayern has helped him earn more respect on the world stage and wants to win the Ballon d’Or.

“Just being at a club like Bayern Munich has helped push me on even more, confidence-wise and responsibility-wise,” he added.

“I feel like I’ve definitely got better, I’ve improved, and maybe the ‘aura’ of me as a player is a bit more respected than what it has been in the past, because you’re playing in big games, big nights.

“I felt that last season as well, I scored over 40 goals, but obviously, I was never going to win the Ballon d’Or because we didn’t win the team trophies.

“Those opportunities are there. That’s probably what I mean in terms of being respected more worldwide, on the bigger stage.

“For something like that, you have to win enough team trophies to be considered in that and probably score 40-odd goals, but that is a possibility this season.

“That is definitely something I would love to try to achieve.”