England will face Belgium in the third-place match in St. Petersburg on Saturday after the team lost 2-1 to Croatia in the semi-finals on Wednesday. Kane has scored six goals at the tournament so far, two more than Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku.

"We have a captain who's first thought all tournament has been how far can the team go, how can he help the team to progress, he was totally on board with us not playing in the first game against Belgium," he said.

"If he had a different mindset, he'd been insisting and played in the game.

"And he didn't, he wanted to do what was right for the team, so be even more powerful for him if he wins the Golden Boot having made this sacrifice, in my opinion."

He added that there had been "individual exceptional performances" at the World Cup, but England were proud of Kane for being the top goalscorer.

"But outside of that, I'm not interested in the individual awards too much. Every team is here to win as a team, that's what football is about," Southgate said.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup kicked off on June 14 and will come to a close on Sunday, with the final set to be held at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium.