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Mauricio Pochettino Compares Harry Kane to Lionel Messi, Pele

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On Boxing Day, Harry Kane scored a hat trick against Southampton, and the performance made him the first player ever to score six hat tricks in a single season. It also invited comparisons between the Tottenham Hotspur striker to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. As many statistical oriented tweets showed that day, the numbers reflect very favorable upon Harry Kane in this analogy.
Kane also broke the great Alan Shearer’s record for most Premier League goals scored in a calendar year. After reaching his 100th Premier League scoring strike last weekend against Liverpool, becoming the second fastest to get there behind Shearer, the young Englishman was compared to Lionel Messi and Pele by his manager Mauricio Pochettino.

Pochettino stopped short of hailing the 24-year-old as the best in the game today, but he did say that Harry Kane was among the “greatest strikers” in the world.

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“It is too difficult to know,” Pochettino said.

“Only I know that a striker like him in England, in Germany, in Spain, he is top. People say if Messi moved to England would he be the same? It’s like [Diego] Maradona, if he played today would he be the same? The same with [Alfredo] Di Stefano, [Johan] Cruyff, Pele.”

Kane, coming off back to back Golden Boot Awards, has scored 22 goals this season, putting him on pace to produce at an even higher level than he has the past two seasons. He keeps staying on a positive trajectory, and the best might still be yet to come.

“It is difficult to find another striker who has improved like he has improved,” Pochettino continued. “And the impact in Premier League, the best league in the world, because you listen, people in Spain say Spain is the best league, the same in Italy but come on, I was in France, in Spain.

People keep their eyes on England, the best league is here. To have the impact Harry has had is so difficult and that is why for me he is one of the greatest strikers.”

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The scary thing is, he may not have even hit his ceiling yet, as he’s still a few years off from reaching his physical prime, age wise. Pochettino discussed this idea in detail back on Boxing Day.

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.

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