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There is another version of reality in which Harry Kane is not England’s greatest goalscorer but a goalkeeper. On his first day at Ridgeway Rovers, his first club, the coach Dave Bricknell asked whether anyone fancied going in goal. A six-year-old Kane threw up his hand – and he was pretty good.
“I thought I’d found a goalkeeper,” Bricknell says. “At that age, you don’t get many kids that don’t mind standing in front of a ball.”
It was quickly pointed out to him by parents that Kane was even better on the pitch. But that wasn’t the only time Kane almost strayed down the goalkeeping path.
Kane was a natural finisher, scoring more than 40 goals in his first season, and was spotted by the Arsenal scout Steve Leonard. They saw potential in goal, too: alongside outfield training, he spent evenings with the goalkeeper coach Alex Welsh.
How did this almost-goalkeeper end up in the debate as England’s greatest No 9? Figures who worked with Kane during his formative years recall a determination and self-belief, even when many could not necessarily see it. Some wonder whether his aptitude in goal – knowing what goalkeepers know – made him a better forward.
“The best thing I could ever say about Harry is his resilience,” Bricknell says. “He didn’t really care if he missed because he knew another chance would come along, which has held him in great stead.”
Many young players crumble at rejection but Kane returned to Ridgeway Rovers undeterred when Arsenal let him go. He was soon scouted by Tottenham Hotspur’s Mark O’Toole. He was released again, but after scoring against Spurs in a brief spell at Watford, they brought him back.
“Having two caring parents, guiding him the right way, he’s had a stable relationship most of his life, that keeps you grounded,” Bricknell says. It helped during the years of endless loans at Spurs, when many doubted whether a first-team opening would appear. During this period, he was called up to England’s under-20s by Peter Taylor for the World Cup in Turkey, only to experience more disappointment.
Taylor noticed Kane’s strengths – the finishing technique, how he required few chances to score. But, like others, he would not have predicted Kane’s trajectory.
“If you’d asked me if he was going to go back from that tournament and all of a sudden get into Spurs’s first team and have the career he’s had, I would’ve said: ‘I hope he does, because you couldn’t meet a nicer boy, but probably not.’ He’s put his heart and soul into his career.”
The 19-year-old had a sense of humour, too. Taylor had a two-month contract and the team were cobbled together at short notice. To help players bond, Taylor arranged a golf putting competition in the hotel. Everyone bar one wore the standard training gear; Kane turned up head-to-toe in golf attire, complete with hat and gloves. “He’s come down as if he’s going to play the Open,” Taylor says. “It was so funny.”
England had a strong squad – including John Stones and Ross Barkley – but though Kane scored once, they drew twice and lost, finishing bottom of a group with Iraq, Chile and Egypt.
On a ferry back from Turkey, Taylor spent time with Kane. “Harry’s great company. He was quietly confident he was going to have a good career. You could just tell there’s something about him – he was confident. It wasn’t a case of ‘football owes me a living’; it was: ‘I’m gonna work me socks off to have one.’”
The following season, 2013-14, he was given a run in the Spurs first team by Tim Sherwood, and ended with four goals. The season after, under Mauricio Pochettino, he exploded: 31 goals in 51 games, including 21 in the league. In 2016 he won the first of three Premier League Golden Boots.
Initially, Kane and Pochettino failed to click. Pochettino found a frustrated striker wary of yet another manager who might prioritise signings over academy prospects. And Pochettino wasn’t sold on his style.
Kane had a more old-school approach: back to goal, holding the ball up, getting in the box, waiting for chances. Pochettino wanted forwards on their toes, pressing from the front, winning the ball back, roaming with fluidity – the modern forward Kane became.
Pochettino was hard on him, insisting he work harder and improve his fitness. To Kane’s credit, he listened. He owned a house in Essex but bought a second one close to the training ground, living there during the week so he could be the first in and last out.
“I believe Harry Kane is the best player in the world in terms of mental strength, willpower and endeavour,” Pochettino wrote in the 2017 book, Brave New World. “He is completely focused on his football.”
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Five years after that Under-20 World Cup in Turkey, he was a World Cup semi-finalist.
Gareth Southgate was another with whom Kane forged a symbiotic relationship, the England manager building teams around the striker that reached heights England had not achieved for decades. Southgate introduced Allan Russell, a forward who spent most of his playing career in Scotland, as striker coach in 2017.
“Harry had a quiet, powerful, strong aura about him,” Russell says. “Over the years, it turned into a self-assurance that he just cannot be nudged off track, whatever happens.”
How do you improve a Premier League Golden Boot winner? Russell says some players you coach and some you challenge – and Kane fell firmly into the latter camp. One thing that strikes anyone who has met Kane is how genuine and nice he seems. Yet that personality doesn’t tally with the selfish arrogance many believe is required to make it at the highest level.
“Harry is ruthless,” Russell says. “Is he a nice guy? No. He’s a good guy. Nice guys get taken advantage of, seem to be a little bit softer. He’s mastered that fine line. Other players will act selfish, and their behaviours will come across as maybe arrogant. Those traits come out in Harry in his ability to score goals.”
Russell texted Kane after he scored twice against the Democratic Republic of the Congo to rescue England – the winner a ferocious strike.
Russell wrote: Amazing, H. Always pulling it out of the bag for your team.
Kane replied: Thanks Al, I know you’ll enjoy that second finish.
One of the extraordinary things about Kane at this World Cup is that he seems to be better than ever. He turns 33 nine days after the final, but his six goals have equalled his 2018 tally. England’s leading goalscorer by some distance, he overtook Gary Lineker as England’s top scorer at World Cups, surpassing Pelé while he was at it.
Russell recalls sitting with Kane in Lithuania, telling him he didn’t have to play the friendly if he wanted to rest. “He’s like: ‘I’m playing,’” Russell says. “‘Every game – I want to score goals, I want to break records.’ That’s his mentality.
“Now he is older and wiser. He manages his energy levels better in games. He manages triggers on when to press. He manages when he comes deep. You’re probably seeing him at his prime.
“The tournaments I had with him, you could see him starting to dip towards the end. That could be mental fatigue, because he carries the team a lot as captain. Now he’s matured into a true leader, maybe the anxiety and stress of being captain is no longer a big drain on his energy levels; maybe it’s allowed him to go and flourish more.”
Will we see Kane at another World Cup? “I wouldn’t put it past him.”
