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Harry Kane

LONDON. — Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane is happy to shatter scoring records but believes that winning silverware with the London soccer club would represent a more significant achievement than any personal landmark.The England international scored a hat-trick in Tuesday’s 5-2 win over Southampton to eclipse Alan Shearer’s 22-year-old record of 36 English Premier League goals in a calendar year, taking his tally to 39 for 2017.

Kane also became Europe’s most lethal marksman of the year as he took his total in all competitions in the calendar year for club and country to 56, lifting him ahead of Lionel Messi, who hit 54 for Barcelona and Argentina in the past 12 months.

Asked if team honours meant more than personal glory, Kane said: “Yeah, for sure, 100 percent. I’ve always said team trophies are what I want to achieve.”Kane says his record-breaking year was fuelled by a desire to silence the doubters by earning his place alongside Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Kane’s hat-trick in Tottenham’s 5-2 win over Southampton on Tuesday proved a landmark moment for the England star.

His 39 goals in 36 games smashes Shearer’s record for Premier League goals scored in a calendar year, after Shearer managed 36 in 42 games back in 1995.Perhaps even more impressively, Kane will finish this year with 56 goals for club and country, which is two better than Barcelona’s Messi has managed and three more than Real Madrid’s Ronaldo.Kane is the first player ever to finish a calendar year with six Premier League hat-tricks.

Tottenham fans revelled in their hero’s success with a song mocking those that branded Kane a one-season wonder after he exploded onto the scene with 21 league goals in 2014-15. — Reuters