The brace lifted his overall World Cup tally to 13 goals, with five netted in this tournament alone. He had already surpassed Gary Lineker to become England’s all-time top scorer at the tournament. One of the few voices unconvinced by the former Tottenham frontman on the grandest stage has been Hamann, who controversially claimed his statistics were misleading and that he had failed to deliver when it truly counted against elite opposition at international level.
Speaking on Irish broadcaster RTE during the group stage, the former Liverpool and Manchester City midfielder said: “I think he’s scored eight goals in the group stages – two against Tunisia, three against Panama and a penalty against Colombia.
“He’s the captain and he’s there to score goals in the knockout games. The jury’s out. I want to see him do it against France and Brazil. Whether he’s capable of doing it, we don’t know yet.”
Those remarks drew widespread criticism and mockery. But following his match-winning display against Congo, Hamann heaped praise on Kane, who is now locked in battle with Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe for the World Cup’s Golden Boot.
Hamann hailed the 32-year-old as “phenomenal” on RTE. Speaking to his fellow pundits, he said: “I think we played with some of the best strikers in the world. I’m not sure whether there has ever been a striker like him, who finishes like he does.
“His shooting technique, both feet, not only the right foot, he does it with the left as well. It’s simply outstanding, and if you give him half a yard in the box, even with five minutes to go, when he’s a bit tired, when he has got 85 minutes in his legs, he still picks his spot, and he puts it exactly where he wants. Outstanding.”
Kane remained modest while praising his team-mates after England’s comeback triumph, saying: “I’m proud of the group, proud of the boys. We spoke before the game about how difficult this game would be.
“You’re coming up against a good team who defend and watch really well. They were dangerous in the counter-attack, as we saw in that first 20 minutes of the game.
“So we had to just grind a win out, and I thought we played some really good stuff after 25 minutes of the game. Their keeper made some incredible saves, to be fair to him, and you start to think maybe it’s just one of those days.
“But that’s where I’m most proud of the boys and myself as well, just to keep the belief, keep getting the ball into the right areas. You know one of us will have our hero moment, and thankfully for me it was today.”