Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane has set his sights on emulating the goalscoring achievements of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo during his career.

Barcelona's Messi and Real Madrid's Ronaldo have set new standards during the near-decade in which they have dominated football, helping them to share the past nine Ballon d'Or crowns between them.

Kane has emerged as one of the best goalscorers in world football in recent seasons, though, and with his brace in the 4-1 win over Liverpool on Sunday taking him to 45 goals for club and country in 2017, he is now bidding for a half-century in a single calendar year.

"I've told you before, at some stage I want to be the best player in the world and to do that you have to be up there with these players," he told reporters.

"They set the standards, Ronaldo and Messi, so for the rest of us it's about trying to catch them and get up there. The numbers are good but, for me, it's more important to be winning these big games against big teams. It shows we are coming together as a team and getting better.

"Fifty would be nice. We will see. There are plenty of games to go, a lot of tough games coming up, so we will just see. I don't like to think about it too much. I feel confident, scoring goals early in a game like that helps as well, so I just want to keep it going."

Messi is the only player from Europe's top five leagues to have scored more goals than Kane so far this calendar year.