No wonder Harry Kane was already looking over his shoulder as he prepared to break England’s appearance record. On the same night the striker won his 126th cap, Jude Bellingham collected his 61st and is on course to become the country’s first player to join the exclusive 200 club.

Bellingham is more than four years ahead of Kane in terms of England appearances and the 23-year-old is also collecting caps at a faster rate than Cristiano Ronaldo did for Portugal at the same age.

To break Ronaldo’s world-record 234 appearances in men’s internationals, Bellingham would most likely have to keep playing regularly for England past his 40th birthday. The Real Madrid midfielder can hit the 200 mark by the time he turns 38 if he can average more than 9.5 appearances for his country each year.

Other than Ronaldo, only Lionel Messi (Argentina), Luka Modric (Croatia) and Bader Al-Mutawa (Kuwait) have made 200 appearances or more for their countries in men’s football.

Bellingham will win his 62nd cap against Spain on Saturday in Madrid. Kane was 28 by the time he made the same number of appearances for England. Ronaldo had celebrated his 24th birthday by the time he played his 62nd game for Portugal.

England will play four more games after the Spain match, before Bellingham celebrates his 24th birthday on June 29 next year, meaning he will have the opportunity to finish his 23rd year on 66 caps.

Should he play in all of England’s scheduled games until his next birthday, then Bellingham will have averaged 9.4 caps a year since making his senior debut as a 17-year-old in November 2020.

Kane has averaged 9.6 caps a year over the course of his England career, meaning it will take him another 2½ years to hit 150 appearances, which is well within his sights. To get to 200, England’s captain would need to remain close to his current rate until the age of 41, which was when Ronaldo finally decided to retire from international football.

“I suppose as long as I feel like I can help the national team and as long as I feel like I’m performing at the highest level, I’ll be here for as long as I can,” Kane said. “Whether that’s until I’m 40 or not, we’ll have to wait and see. But right now, I’m enjoying every moment.”

Before claiming England’s outright appearance record from Peter Shilton, Kane had said: “When you look at Jude and Dec [Declan Rice], for example, they’re on 60-odd caps already [Rice is now on 81 aged 27] and how young they are. So, I’ll try and give them a good number to catch.”

Kane will be confident of holding on to his goalscoring records for many years to come, but he is clearly aware that his appearance record may be passed relatively quickly – most likely by Bellingham.

Given his position in the centre of midfield and emerging competition from Elliot Anderson, Alex Scott and a certain Jobe Bellingham, Rice is not guaranteed to catch Kane despite being one of the first names in the team for the past seven years.

Assuming he plays against Spain, Rice will celebrate his 28th birthday on 82 caps. That would put him 21 ahead of Kane at the same age, but the Arsenal midfielder would have to average 9.5 England appearances a year for more than seven years to reach 150 caps.

Other than having age and the early start to his senior career on his side, Bellingham is helped by his position on the pitch and the fact he has still never played in the Premier League.

Since moving from Birmingham City to Borussia Dortmund as a 17-year-old in 2020, Bellingham has enjoyed a winter break in Germany and now in Spain with Real Madrid. La Liga is undoubtedly less physical than the Premier League.

Kane and Ronaldo elongated their international careers by leaving England, and it may well be a blessing for the national team if Bellingham puts off a future move to the Premier League for as long as possible.

Revealing how he likes to spend his winter break, Kane, of Bayern Munich, said: “I’ll be on the beach somewhere. I’ll have a good drink with my wife and we’ll try to reflect on everything that I’ve achieved.”

Bellingham has shown signs that he may share the country-first mentality of Kane and Ronaldo, and has spoken about the emotion he feels while singing the national anthem. He has also had his brother Jobe at his side for the latest camp and has previously claimed that sharing the pitch with him for England would trump any trophy.

Thomas Tuchel, England’s current head coach, likes to play Bellingham as close to Kane as possible and has even suggested he could one day become the country’s No 9.

“Jude is much more aggressive in the last 20–30 metres of the pitch,” Tuchel said. “He just smells blood when it comes to goalscoring and assisting. I don’t want to think about the fact that Harry is not available, but if he is unavailable we have players who can fill this role. Jude can play in this position.”

Playing high up the pitch as either a No 10 or at centre-forward should benefit Bellingham in terms of how long he can play for England.

Ronaldo’s move from the wing into the middle helped him to keep playing for Portugal for longer, and Messi, who finished his Argentina career with 208 caps, barely moved around the pitch in his latter years but remained hugely influential.

Bellingham likes to cover as much ground as possible, but it is easier to conserve energy the higher you play. Should he stay fit, then joining international football’s 200-club is something he can achieve.