Aston Villa kid can be England’s fix for the Kane, Bellingham dilemma

Harry Kane matching Peter Shilton’s caps record while scoring his fifth and sixth goals of the international break on his inexorable path to a Three Lions century led to perfectly reasonable debates as to whether the Ballon d’Or candidate might just be the greatest England player of all time.

But each passing milestone also acts as a reminder of his footballing mortality. At some stage in the not-too-distant future, England will be Kane-less.

While not knowing what you’ve got ’til it’s gone undoubtedly pertains to a still somehow underrated footballer who’s bluffed his way to 537 career goals, the hole he will leave behind grows ever wider and deeper while there’s no clear candidate to fill it.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin is peaking too late in his career at 29 to be more than a stop-gap. Ivan Toney and Ollie Watkins are both 30 and phoning it in out in the Saudi Pro League. Liam Delap was supposed to be the guy but a season at Chelsea put paid to that.

As things stand, Kane’s replacement will be Jude Bellingham.

“I like him as a nine,” Tuchel admitted ahead of England’s 7-0 win over Croatia. “He is a natural goalscorer and he has the hunger to be on the scoreboard.

“He wants to be there and have the decisive action, so it makes not a huge difference if he plays as a nine or a 10.”

Bellingham excelled in that false 9 position in his debut season at Real Madrid, scoring 19 goals in 28 appearances, and the reality is any as yet undiscovered English centre-forward saviour would have to be an unbelievable talent to do a better job than Bellingham even in that unfavoured role.

But we’ve all seen what Bellingham can do behind the striker. On the back of what will have been the greatest individual performance from an England player at a major tournament that many of us have ever seen, he was outstanding again for the Three Lions in the Nations League.

He’s a bona fide superstar. There’s not been a player more like Zinedine Zidane since Zinedine Zidane. There’s nothing he can’t do and he does everything about as well as anyone else.

It’s that ‘everything’ quality that makes a position change possible, but also makes the thought of moving him from a role where England can more easily benefit from that all-round game feel like a misstep.

England have a bit of time on their side. Kane will lead England at Euro 2028, and World Cup 2030 at the age of 37 isn’t beyond the realms of possibility. He’s in very good nick.

So it’s very possible, even likely, that his replacement is yet to enter the football consciousness. Or, in the case of Aston Villa’s Brian Madjo, is currently in that breakthrough process.

“He has got a very high ceiling,” said teammate Tyrone Mings after Madjo’s brilliant goal for Villa against Paris Saint Germain in the UEFA Super Cup.

“He is very, very difficult to play against. And I just hope that he takes his goal today and it fills him with confidence, and he can go on and contribute to the team.”

An injury in the second half of that game – which saw the 17-year-old treat PSG’s Pacho like a ragdoll for 72 minutes – has kept him out of action since, and also meant he wasn’t included in the Villa squad for the Champions League group stage in what has been a hugely frustrating start to his career on these shores.

Signed from Metz for £10m in January, Madjo couldn’t play for Villa in the second half of last season as FIFA refused to approve his transfer because Article 19 of its Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players prohibits the international transfer of players under the age of 18.

“The rules were ridiculous last year,” said John McGinn. “A player born in England, not allowed to play in England.”

The Villa captain believes their new “machine” “could be seriously, seriously good”, but he’s trying not to put too much pressure on him.

“I’m excited by him, but I’m trying to protect him as well because it’s very hard being young and English,” he said. “There’s pressure on him, the hype, being a striker obviously when Harry Kane’s getting a bit older.”

After those registration issues and then an injury-enforced false start this season, there’s opportunity for that hype to blossom in the coming weeks, starting with what could be Madjo’s Premier League debut against Brentford on Saturday.

A 17-year-old with one senior appearance for Aston Villa being England’s best hope of solving the Kane, Bellingham conundrum is both evidence of the stalled striker conveyor-belt of recent years and testament to just how good a prospect Madjo looked in that one appearance against the European champions.

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