Tottenham captain Ledley King today urged coach Fabio Capello to end Darren Bent's 12-month exile from the England squad and pick him to face Germany on 19 November.

Bent scored a fine brace against Manchester City to lift Spurs out of the bottom three for the first time this season and, in the process, became the top English scorer in the Premier League with seven goals.

The 24-year-old has been ignored by Capello since he took charge in December 2007 and his last appearance in an England shirt was as a substitute against Croatia 12 months ago.

Capello will name his squad this weekend for the friendly in Berlin and King insists Bent has earned the right to be in it.

He said: "We're delighted with him at the moment. His finishing is superb and from my point of view he deserves his chance to play for England.

"He is top English scorer and that speaks for itself. He is also in the running with Nicolas Anelka [who has 11] to be top scorer in the division and he is letting everyone at the club know about it."

Bent was labelled by many as a flop last year when scoring just eight goals after joining from Charlton in a £16.5million deal.

But King added: "It's no surprise what he is doing now. A year ago we had three other top strikers so his chances were limited. But he's always scored goals at this level, his record says that."