On the 5th May 1928 Dixie Dean scored a hat-trick against Arsenal which saw him break George Camsell’s record, who scored 59 league goals for Middlesbrough in the previous season. It’s a record that has stood close to almost 100 years, but is this the year the record could be beaten?
England forward Harry Kane has started the 2025/2026 campaign in a rich vein of form. The 32-year-old has scored a staggering 18 goals in 10 games in all competitions, a similar rate to what Dean had during his record-breaking year.
Erling Haaland came closest to matching Dean’s record in his debut season at Manchester City when the Norwegian scored 52 goals – 36 in the Premier League – and was on a rate which could have challenged Dean’s achievement.
In his first 10 games for the Manchester club, Haaland scored 15 goals meanwhile Dixie Dean scored 17 including five against Manchester United. During the 10-game spell, Dean scored more than one goal on five occasions.
So, far Kane has scored 18 goals in all competitions something which could play a key factor for the England captain, as there’s more games that Kane will feature in compared to Dean, where he only competed in the First Division and FA Cup. Dean only featured 39 times in a 42-game league season.
In the Bundesliga the former Tottenham Hotspur man who recorded six goals in 11 games, including hat-tricks against RB Leipzig and Hoffenheim in just 493 minutes. Since his move to Bayern Munich Kane has scored 36 and 26 league goals in his two seasons at the club coming nowhere near Dean’s record.
After the first ten games, Dean didn’t score in two games in a row, before normal service resumed where he bagged ten goals in his next four which helped Everton win the First Division title for the third time.
Comparisons will be made of the era that the Birkenhead-born striker played in but during the historic campaign Dean goal per was 1.54 whereas the season before his goal rate was 0.77 as Everton just avoided relegation.
In the closing stages of the 1927/28 season Dean was on 51 goals with just three games remaining. Before the final game against Arsenal, Everton’s talisman bagged four goals against Burnley which brought him into contention of breaking Camsell’s record.
In the final game of the season Dean bagged a hat-trick as Everton drew 3-3 with the Gunners, with Dean surpassing Camsell’s record which he set in the second division.
According to FotMob Harry Kane expected goals is 5.89 which he’s overperforming by 6 goals. With the Bundesliga only hosting 34 games, 5 less that what Dean played in the 1927/28 season it’s unlikely that Kane will come close to his record, the 32-year-old expected goal per 90 is 1.08.
Everton’s successor to their iconic number.9 was Tommy Lawton who had the similar success to Dean before the Second World War broke and abruptly ended his Everton career.
The Blues have notoriously had classic number nines such as Dave Hickson, Bob Latchford, Alex Young, Joe Royle and Graeme Sharp. Gary Lineker only played for the club for a single season, scoring 40 goals in all competitions but Dean’s record will live on in Everton’s history and perhaps in English football.
Sources: Everton Results, Transfermarkt, FBREF and Fotmob
