Alan Shearer led the plaudits as Tottenham striker Harry Kane made his remarkable 2017 a record-breaking one at Wembley on Tuesday.
Kane opened the scoring after 22 minutes of the match against struggling Southampton, moving on to 37 Premier League goals in the calendar year and going past the previous best mark set by Shearer at Blackburn Rovers in 1995.
Shearer praised the man who now fills his old role as England's main striker at international level by tweeting: "You've had a magnificent 2017, Harry Kane. You deserve to hold the record of most Premier League goals in a calendar year. Well done and keep up the good work."
Another ex-England frontman Gary Lineker also joined in with the tributes and joked that his "thoughts are with Alan Shearer at this difficult time".
Kane was not done and doubled his haul and Southampton's misery before half-time, moving on to 55 goals for club and county this year – one more than Lionel Messi.
The 24-year-old then made it back-to-back hat-tricks, having claimed the matchball last time out at Burnley. He now has eight hat-tricks in total over the 12-month period.
Kane's 56 goals in 2017 have arrived in just 52 appearances, set against 54 in 64 for Barcelona superstar Messi.
The Spurs hero heads an all-star leaderboard as Robert Lewandowski, Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani all finished 2017 with 53 goals to their name.
