Kane poised to overtake Shilton for England appearance record

Harry Kane is set to become England's most-capped men's player when he takes the field against Croatia at Wembley on Thursday night, with his 126th appearance moving him clear of Peter Shilton's long-standing record, Guardian Football reports.

The captain remains the nation's leading scorer as well, with 91 international goals to his name, well beyond Wayne Rooney's final total of 53.

Kane said he still feels the need to justify his place at the top, telling the Guardian: "I've had to prove people wrong."

The milestone arrives little more than a fortnight after Kane collected the Ballon d'Or in London, becoming the first England player to win the award since Michael Owen in 2001, according to Yahoo Sports.

His case was built on 73 goals and eight assists in just 65 appearances for Bayern Munich and England last season, a return that saw off strong challenges from Real Madrid and France forward Kylian Mbappé and Barcelona and Spain's Lamine Yamal.

Kane's scoring touch has cooled since Bayern's 2-2 Champions League draw with Arsenal on 21 October, but he has supplied five assists in that run across all competitions, including reaching eight Bundesliga assists after just nine match weeks, the quickest any player has managed at that stage of a season.

England now turn to a pair of Nations League fixtures against Croatia and Spain, with Thomas Tuchel's side hoping to leapfrog Spain at the top of their group.

Tuchel has called up Liverpool's Rio Ngumoha for the squad, with the winger in good form under Andoni Iraola and having made his senior competitive debut in September's 2-0 win over Czechia.

Ngumoha said Kane's Ballon d'Or success carried wider significance for English football, telling the Liverpool Echo: "Harry Kane winning the Ballon d'Or is definitely a big, big thing, being known as the best player in the world. It's also helped English football now because everyone's seen one of us win the Ballon d'Or, it is definitely encouraging many more people to wanting to be known as the best player in the world. For me, I would like to achieve it and I think I can do it."

Ngumoha is competing for minutes at Liverpool with Cody Gakpo, Bradley Barcola, Victor Muñoz and Florian Wirtz, though Iraola has begun trusting him with rotation and occasional starts as the Spaniard manages his squad across competitions.

England's attention now turns to Thursday's game with Croatia before the second of the two Nations League fixtures against Spain, with Kane's record-breaking appearance set to be marked at Wembley.