Harry Kane Compared to Cristiano Ronaldo After First Tottenham Hat-Trick

Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane has been compared to Cristiano Ronaldo after the England Under-21 international netted his first club hat-trick to help beat Asteras Tripolis in the Europa League.

Although Kane's treble was eventually upstaged by Erik Lamela's outstanding rabona goal, the 21 year old enjoyed the most fruitful night of his club career to enhance his hopes of a regular starting place for Spurs.

Kane ended an eventful evening in the Tottenham goal after Hugo Lloris was sent off but was unable to keep a clean sheet after allowing Jeronimo Barrales's free-kick to squirm through his grasp.

But as a forward Kane's talent hasn't gone unnoticed and Vertonghen says his spirit is comparable to the current world footballer of the year.

"Harry is an unbelievable player and now the fans are starting to see it, but me I can see it every day in training," Vertonghen told Tottenham's official website.

"I'm a defender, he's a striker, I've trained against him so many times and he's a very, very difficult striker to defend against.

"For me, with his attitude, he can be one of the best centre-forwards in the world one day. He has a spirit you can compare to [Cristiano] Ronaldo and he works every day.

"He's a top professional, I love working with him and I hope one day he can make his debut maybe in the England squad, because I think he's one of the best already."

Kane doubled his tally for the season with three goals against the Greek champions and will hope his performance can see him handed a regular starting role in the Tottenham first team, having yet to make a start in the Premier League this season.

It was Roberto Soldado who started in Tottenham's 4-1 defeat against Manchester City and, following an poor performance at the Etihad Stadium, former manager Tim Sherwood wants to see Kane deputise for the struggling Spaniard.

"Harry Kane is better than Roberto Soldado," Sherwood told BT Sport last weekend. "I chose Kane last year as he was consistently performing better in training.

"He [Soldado] needs to start producing on the field and we can't make excuses for him any more. He should be settled in at the club after living here for over a year."