Former Spurs striker Jermain Defoe slammed in two goals on his debut for Toronto FC in North America’s Major League Soccer at the weekend, rekindling hopes of an England recall for the 2014 World Cup.
The 31-year-old, whose winner against Slovenia at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa allowed England to progress from the group stages, joined the Canadian outfit from Tottenham in January.
On Saturday, he scored both goals in Toronto’s 2-1 season-opening win over the Seattle Sounders, continuing a run of scoring on his club debuts, having managed the feat at each of West Ham, Bournemouth, Tottenham and Portsmouth.
His exploits saw him named MLS Player of the Week on Monday, keeping his name firmly in the headlines as England manager Roy Hodgson mulls his 23-man squad for the June 12-July 13 World Cup in Brazil.
Certainly Defoe knows what he needs to do to give himself a chance of making a second World Cup finals.
“I’d like to score as many goals as possible for the club and go to the World Cup,” Defoe told the Fifa website.
“I just need to play and score goals,” he said. “To get on a World Cup squad you have to be playing.
“Throughout my career people know I’ve scored a lot of goals. I think the most important thing for me is to play and score goals.
“I think that’s all I can do.”
The 31-year-old has been capped 55 times by England – overwhelmingly as a substitute – and has scored 19 times for his country.
His two goals for Toronto were numbers 215 and 216 of a lucrative club career, and while his move to Canada has seen him drop down a couple of levels in soccer terms, the striker has sent Hodgson a timely reminder that he knows the way to goal.
Source: Supersport