Harry Kane: Jimmy Greaves family send touching message after Tottenham goalscoring record broken

The family of Jimmy Greaves have hailed Harry Kane after he became Tottenham’s outright all-time top scorer on Sunday.

The England captain netted an early winner in the home Premier League contest against Manchester City to move onto 277 career goals in a Spurs shirt on his 416th appearance for the club across all competitions, breaking the tie with late icon Greaves whom he initially matched with his last winner against Fulham last week.

Greaves scored 266 goals in 379 appearances for Tottenham between 1961-70, with an extra two notched in the 1962 Charity Shield drubbing of Ipswich not counting as competitive strikes in the official club records.

Greaves - an England legend and member of the 1966 World Cup-winning squad - sadly passed away in September 2021 at the age of 81, having also thrived for Chelsea, AC Milan and West Ham during an illustrious career and later become a successful broadcaster.

In a statement released on Sunday night, his family sent a heart-warming message of congratulations to Kane after such an extraordinary achievement, stating that they were pleased he was the one to finally surpass a record that had been unrivalled for more than half a century.

“We are proud that Jimmy’s record has stood for over 50 years and know he would have been happy for Harry to be the one to beat it after all this time,” read the statement from Greaves’ wife Irene and children Lynn, Andy, Mitzi and Danny.

“Congratulations to Harry from the Greaves Family.”

The 29-year-old Kane’s Premier League goal mark now stands at 200, just eight behind Wayne Rooney in second place and 60 shy of all-time leader Alan Shearer.

He moved past Andy Cole for third spot on the list back in September and now has 19 goals overall for the 2022/23 season, including 17 in the top-flight.

Kane - who made his Spurs debut in 2011 and had loan spells at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester - is also currenty tied with Rooney as the leading scorer in the history of the English men’s national team after notching for the 53rd time at senior international level in the World Cup quarter-final defeat by France in Qatar in December.

He will be hopeful of achieving another milestone record in the Euro 2024 qualifiers against Italy and Ukraine next month.