The heir to Harry Kane
Three potential prospects on course to (try to) replace an all-time great
This is The Shortlist, your free weekly dispatch of short-form stories from the editorial team at SCOUTED: Tom Curren, Jake Entwistle and Llew Davies.
Support us by forwarding this newsletter to a friend. Did someone forward this to you? Sign up for free. Want more detail and feature stories? SCOUT NOTES or MNS.
Enjoy this free newsletter? You can gift us a one-off tip, here.
The heir to Harry
Jake Entwistle
Harry Kane is irreplaceable. Let’s establish that straight away. He is both physically and technically one of the best players in the world. He’s scored 20 goals and provided three assists in 12 games for Bayern this season. In Der Klassiker, he decided to take the piss in midfield and still managed to score his 400th (!!!) goal in club football.
Harry Kane is a generational footballer. pic.twitter.com/zM0kHWfOPw
— FC Bayern (@FCBayernEN) October 20, 2025
If you’re interested, I did a mini thread about his Pathfinder metamorphosis. But the main takeaway is that his dynamic with Nicolas Jackson might tell us more about England’s future.
The heir to Harry Kane will not play anything like Harry Kane. It would be ridiculous to expect another bulky ball-striking phenom to pop up. But even Vincent Kompany has recognised that Kane’s most super of superpowers can also be platformed in this slightly deeper role. Of course, he returned to his centre-forward position in the UEFA Champions League against Club Brugge. Of course, he scored.
But in that game against Dortmund, Kane was legitimately quarter-backing. A Bayern teammate would ‘snap’ him the ball in his own half and the receivers would make their runs. Kane would then launch the ball over huge distances with pinpoint accuracy. The key to making it work is the receivers. The runners.
So, as Kane leans more into this development arc, it will be interesting to see whether Thomas Tuchel asks him to adopt a similar role for England. Even if not, the meta centre-forward profile is an athletic, low-touch runner like Jackson; the pinnacle being a guy called Erling Haaland. Do England have any?
A Power Forward would dovetail beautifully with Kane and his heat-seeking foot missiles. Liam Delap might well be the long-term international partner if this new dynamic develops. As for the younger prospects, Divin Mubama is very much of that ilk. The intensity, volume and intelligence of his running stands out, a skillset that is not producing tonnes of goals on loan at Stoke City, but adds tremendous value to a dominant team like Bayern, Manchester City or the England Under-21s.
This is an relatively underbaked theory, but I think a reason why we’re seeing fewer number nines develop, not just in England, is that it’s a gruelling role. Haaland, for example, is averaging 23.6 touches per 90. Nearly 20% of those are shots and 30% of them are inside the box. Centre-forward is not a position in which you can consistently showcase your technical ability and it’s the ultimate test of your physicality. That’s not a super-appealing combination. And it’s not even the position that necessarily scores the most goals anymore.
For the Under-19s, Shim Mheuka has scored 10 goals in 18 caps and will be on the St. George’s Park development track to the senior squad. He’s also got 10 goals in 11 games for Chelsea’s youth teams this season and was recently named PL2 Player of the Month. So he’s definitely prolific and he fits the profile we’re looking for, even though it’s early days.
But Chelsea’s 6-3 UEFA Youth League win against Ajax was a microcosm of the overall centre-forward struggle I’ve described above. The majority of Mheuka’s work was back-to-goal lay-offs or securing the ball under pressure from multiple defenders. Gruelling.
Meanwhile, Ato Ampah was platformed to run riot on the left wing. He was set up for multiple 1v1 showdowns in which he could tangle the Ajax full-back in knots and create shooting angles for himself. For his first goal, he ran beyond the final line, latching onto a pass into space from Mheuka, before carrying into the box, twisting, turning and slotting it into the bottom corner.
Mheuka, on the other hand, was left to feed on scraps. He rarely saw the ball in advantageous areas but still had to make runs into the box and back towards his own. Even right-back Genesis Antwi was given full license to raid forward and finished the match with a goal.
A moment that encapsulated the striker struggle was Ampah’s second goal. Antwi embarked on yet another buccaneering run down the right and clipped the ball to the back post. Mheuka cleverly peeled off, controlled it with his chest and unleashed a snapshot that rifled into the post. The ball fell to Antwi and he finished from close range. As he ran off to celebrate, Mheuka grabbed his shirt, pulled it over his face and let out a release of anguish. How had he not scored that chance? How had he not scored in a nine-goal bonanza?
Even Chelsea’s #8 Harrison McMahon recognised his captain’s disappointment and went over to console him instead of celebrate with Ampah. Now, let me get this straight, I’m absolutely fine with Mheuka’s reaction. This was not a selfish response, but a natural one. He had worked so hard to create space all game but it was his teammates that were benefitting. That’s not how it’s supposed to work for a striker, but it's quickly becoming their truth.
As England begin to develop the next generation of strikers, they need to get them to fall in love with the prospect of ripping a team to shreds without scoring a goal. The position is not as gratifying as it once was. That’s why all the strikers are massive now.
That being said, Alejandro Gomes Rodríguez has the potential to challenge this theory. He’s scored 17 goals in 20 caps for England’s U-16 and U-17 teams and will be leading the line at the 2025 U-17 World Cup in November.
To borrow Tom’s description from our U-17 EURO Team of the Tournament, AGR is a “squat, stocky attacker whose South American heritage is obvious in the way he mirrors the pocket-power builds of players like Sergio Agüero, Lautaro Martínez and perhaps Julián Álvarez.”
However, at the elite level in the modern meta, these players are quickly becoming a foil for a juggernaut, a support or shadow striker. Álvarez himself has gone from one massive Norwegian to another in the form of Haaland at Manchester City and now Sørloth at Atleti.
So, while AGR will continue to spearhead attacks for England at youth level, I imagine that he will partner the likes of Mubama or Mheuka. That’s pretty exciting. But there’s a long way to go. For now, try to enjoy the gamebreaking genius of Harry Kane. He just might need his own battering ram for England soon.
HEATWATCH
SCOUTED50: Keeping tabs on the golden boys.
🔥 9. JOSH ACHEAMPONG
We’ve taken it with a humongous pinch of salt, but Chelsea fans on Twitter / X did not enjoy what we wrote about Acheampong’s SCOUTED50 entry, specifically this part:
“We have absolutely no doubts about his ability to become a first-choice centre-back for England; the issue is he plays for Chelsea and they have made it clear that high-potential academy prospects are now developed primarily for pure profit.”
Perhaps that was too strong. But there is plenty of evidence to suggest that if a huge offer came in, Acheampong would be sold. Also, people complaining about that section seemed to have missed the sentence that follows immediately after:
This means we may not get to see enough of Acheampong in 2025/26 for it to truly be his breakout season. But when he does play, whoever is watching will take notice.
That is exactly what happened against Nottingham Forest. After a nervy start, Acheampong grew into the game and even opened the scoring with a bullet header. He became the 12th teenager to score a Premier League goal for Chelsea and the second-youngest defender to do so after Glen Johnson.
He finished the game with four interceptions, the most recorded by an under-23 player across Europe’s Big Five Leagues this weekend, while only Pedro Neto and Elliot Anderson covered more Progressive Carrying Distance. So, we’ll highlight another important part of the entry:
All in all, Acheampong is a complete package that is very much suited to the modern game. Think Leny Yoro, but perhaps even more talented.
Let’s hope a potential flood of January signings does not push him down the pecking order.
🔥 16. JORTHY MOKIO
In the October international break, the Ajax midfielder played at LB and CB for Belgium’s Under-21s. This week, he was named in the Under-17 squad for November’s 48-team FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar. The squad also includes fellow SCOUTED50 alumni Nathan De Cat.
According to multiple reports, Ajax have agreed to let Mokio join up with the squad from November 10 - the start of the FIFA-sanctioned international window - until their eventual elimination, or triumph. This is fantastic news.
While it seems Anderlecht will only sanction De Cat’s absence during the international break (10-18 November), it’s genuinely great to see a club afford a player the chance to win a trophy with their national team. Forgive me for mentioning them again, but the collective spirit of Morocco’s U-20 World Cup-winning side was one of their standout attributes. You can only really develop that by playing in tournaments together.
Mokio may be lightyears ahead of Under-17 level but this gives him an opportunity to win something for his country. That’s special. Ajax recognise that.
🔥 36. VASILIJE KOSTOV
Fresh from making his senior international debut and a Heatwatch appearance last week, Kostov provided two assists and scored one himself in FK Crvena zvezda’s 6-1 win against FK IMT Beograd to make it 10 wins from 10 in the SuperLiga. In doing so, Kostov became the youngest player to be directly involved in 3+ goals in a single game across all domestic leagues this season.
You’ll find more nuggets like this every week in our new newsletter, the Rabbit Hole.
🧊 49. CYRIAQUE IRIÉ
We’re never going to be hyper negative about players, there’s no value in that. Irié’s inclusion this week is simply to show awareness that he has not played a game of football since the September international break. That’s because he has been fighting a bout of malaria. Damn. The good news is that SC Freiburg reported this week that Irié has started individual work so we should get to see him again soon. But not this weekend.
That’s all, folks. See you next Friday.
For everything on the next generation, stay tuned to SCOUTED.
