This World Cup has been dominated by global soccer superstars coming to the fore and shinning for their respective national teams. Well, that has been none more so the case than with England. The Three Lions will face Norway in the quarterfinals at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday evening and, if Thomas Tuchel’s team are going to progress, and potentially go all the way, he will need his two talismans to continue to shine.

England’s World Cup 2026 results and scorers

So far, of England’s 11 World Cup goals, 10 have been scored by either Harry Kane (6) and Jude Bellingham (4). The other was scored by Marcus Rashford during their tournament opener against Croatia, with all seven subsequently coming courtesy of the front two. Considering Rashford spent last season on loan at Barcelona, the last Premier League-based player to net for England at a World Cup remains Bukayo Saka, bagging the third against Senegal in the round of 16 four years ago.

Kane’s six goals this summer have taken his tally to 14 at the World Cup. This has seen him equal Gerd Müller’s historic tally, meaning only O Fenômeno Ronaldo, Mirosłav Klose, Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi have scored more. For England, by appearing against Norway, Kane will match Wayne Rooney’s outfield record of 120 caps, just five adrift of the all-time record holder Peter Shilton.

Bellingham, meanwhile, 10 years Kane’s junior, already has 53 caps to his name. Of his ten goals, two came at the Euros and four at this world Cup, underlining that the Real Madrid Galáctico is a true big game player. So, if you are going to be reliant on two players, these are not two bad ones to choose.

However, is this sustainable? Do other attackers such as Anthony Gordon, Saka, Rashford and others need to start contributing? Well, let’s see if any previous World Cup winners have relied so heavily on two players to score all the goals.

Former World Cup winners primary goal scorers (1994-present)

Previous World Cups, dating back to the last time the tournament was hosted in the United States, do not present a clear pattern when it comes to the winners’ goal scorers. In 2010, for instance, seven of Spain’s eight goals were scored by either David Villa or Andrés Iniesta; a towering Carles Puyol header in the semi-final against Germany at Moses Mabhida Stadium was the sole exception.

Brazil in both ’94 and 2002, as well as Argentina four years ago, were also pretty reliant on two men to get all the goals. Lionel Messi and Julián Álvarez scored 11 of the 15 goals la Albiceleste bagged en route to glory in Qatar, with no one else managing more than one. In contrast, no Italian player bagged more than two goals when the Azzurri picked up the most-recent of their four world titles back in 2006, sharing the goals around as 12 different players scored in total.

Thus, historical precedent suggests that Bellingham and Kane could fire England to glory. When England themselves won the World Cup in ’66, ten of their 11 goals were scored by Sir Geoff Hurst, Sir Bobby Charlton or Roger Hunt, with Martin Peters in the final itself, the only other man to score.

At this summer’s tournament, Kane and Bellingham have scored ten times from a combined xG of 5.71. The rest of the squad has netted only once from an xG of 4.24. Thus, Tuchel will need his two superstars to continue shining, continuing against Norway in South Florida on Saturday night.

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