Striker Tottenham sold for £9m says he was actually better than Harry Kane at his best
03/26/2025 05:15 AM
Tottenham have had some remarkable strikers over the years.
Indeed, Dimitar Berbatov was a top class player when he was at Spurs, and while he's had a difficult debut season, Dominic Solanke has earned praise since signing for Tottenham.
Of course though, when you think of iconic Tottenham strikers in recent years, the first player to come to mind is Harry Kane.
Kane was Tottenham's talisman for a long time, and Kane was a world class player during his time at Spurs.
However, speaking to ESPN, one former Tottenham striker has actually claimed that he was a better forward than Harry Kane in his prime.
Jermain Defoe claims he was better than Harry Kane in his prime
Jermain Defoe was asked to compare himself to a number of top modern-day strikers.
Defoe wasn't in the mood for being modest as he picked himself over a number of top stars.
Indeed, Defoe claimed that he was better than numerous big-name strikers, including Kane.
However, Defoe did concede that he wasn't as good as Robert Lewandowski.
| Question | Jermain Defoe’s answer |
|---|---|
| Jermain Defoe or Heung-Min Son? | Jermain Defoe |
| Jermain Defoe or Mohamed Salah? | Jermain Defoe |
| Jermain Defoe or Nicolas Jackson? | Jermain Defoe |
| Jermain Defoe or Erling Haaland? | Erling Haaland |
| Jermain Defoe or Harry Kane? | Jermain Defoe |
| Jermain Defoe or Robert Lewandowski? | Robert Lewandowski |
Jermain Defoe compared to Harry Kane
Defoe says that he was better than Kane in his prime, and that's quite an audacious claim.
Indeed, Kane is one of the best strikers of all-time, and, with all due respect, Defoe has never been discussed on that sort of level.
The stats show that Kane has been on another stratosphere to Defoe throughout his career.
| Harry Kane | Jermain Defoe | |
|---|---|---|
| 596 | Club games | 762 |
| 383 | Club goals | 305 |
| 100 | Club assists | 55 |
| 0.64 | Goals per game | 0.4 |
| 3 | Golden Boot wins | 0 |
| 104 | International caps | 57 |
| 70 | International goals | 20 |
| £86M | Transfer fee Tottenham received | £9m |
Kane has scored more goals at both club and international level, and when he eventually did leave Tottenham, he fetched a record fee, while, at one point, Defoe was sold to Portsmouth for just £9m.
Of course, you need to have a serious level of self-belief and self-confidence to make it at the top level, but it would appear that Defoe has backed himself a little bit too much here.
Defoe was a top striker in his day, make no mistake about it, but to suggest that he was anywhere near Kane's level would be remiss and would be doing the current England captain a massive disservice.
