28 July 2022 FourFourTwoS
ometimes, the simplest of things can trigger a childhood
memory. For Harry Kane on this midweek afternoon, it’s
just a single red stripe. The 28-year-old is standing in front
of FourFourTwo, surveying the collection of retro England
shirts we’ve brought along for today’s photoshoot, when
one particular jersey leaps out to him. “That one,” he says,
instantly linking it with a moment he’s never forgotten.
“From when we beat Germany 5-1.”
Back then, Kane was an impressionable young pupil
at Larkswood Primary Academy in Chingford, when he
perched in front of the television one September evening
and witnessed a match that inspired him for years to
come. “It was an incredible game,” he says. “What was that, 2001?
I was eight years old and you just remember something that stands
out like that. Michael Owen’s hat-trick, Steven Gerrard’s goal, Emile
Heskey with the other one. Just amazing.”
As he watched England’s victory unfold, that wide-eyed eight-year-
old had no idea what future lay ahead of him. A World Cup Golden
Boot, a famous moment of his own against Germany at Euro 2020,
and already more goals for England than Owen scored in the whole
of his distinguished career. Today, Kane sits on 49 goals from just 69
games for the Three Lions – it’s a matter of when, not if, he matches
Wayne Rooney’s record of 53 goals. It’s not impossible it could even
happen in the next few weeks.
If you’d told Kane all of that back in 2001, his mind would have been
blown. “Back then I wouldn’t have even thought about it!” he laughs,
admitting that reality has already gone far beyond that young boy’s
wildest dreams. “It’s really special to be on 49 England goals. It’s been
an amazing journey so far.”HERE In 79 SECOnDS
For Kane, that England journey has been amazing from the very start- since a goal with his first touch for the Three Lions, at that. Some
take years to bag for their country; Kane needed seconds. Looking
back, it was a pretty obvious sign that he was destined for greatness.
There’s a smile on the striker’s face as he thinks back to that senior
debut against Lithuania in March 2015 – so rapidly has he galloped
towards the England goalscoring record since then that it doesn’t
even seem that long ago. “Yeah, I know,” he chuckles. “Every season
goes by so quickly, we play so many games – we pretty much play or
train for 49 weeks of the year, one after the other, so you don’t really
get time to process it all.”
As we chat today at TOCA Social, inside London’s O2 complex, he
gets a brief moment just to sit and reflect on that special evening in
his career. “An amazing day, an amazing game,” he says. “I had all of
my family there – my brother, mum and dad, my wife. I had extended
family there as well – everyone was just so excited to see if I’d play, if
I’d get on and make my debut. Thankfully, I did.”
Oh, he certainly did. England were 3-0 up in a Euro 2016 qualifier
at Wembley when Roy Hodgson summoned Spurs’ new sensation,
already buoyed by 29 goals in a breakthrough campaign at club level.
Fittingly, he came on for Rooney, the nation’s established striking star
making way for his successor. The memory of it all is still vivid for Kane.
“I was waiting to come on – it felt like I was waiting there for about
10 minutes, the ball wouldn’t go out of play!” he laughs. “I was there
for three or four minutes, then I finally came on for Wazza and got an
amazing reception – the fans gave me a great cheer. Then it was just
about ‘can I score? Can I help the team?’”
Within two minutes, the answers were yes and yes, as Kane took up
the perfect position to nod home a back-post header – the goalkeeper
got his hands on the ball but wasn’t quite able to scramble it out of
the net. Again, fittingly, the left-wing cross came from Raheem Sterling - the first glimpse of what has since been hailed as one of the most
potent double acts in England history.
“To score a goal in 79 seconds, I think the number was, it was just
everything I’d dreamed of,” he says. “Playing for England at Wembley,
scoring on your debut, it all just came true in that moment. I still
remember it so clearly, that ball going over the line, sneaking in there
at the back post.
HARRY
KAnE“That’s definitely in my top three most special moments – to score,
to have all my family there... it just couldn’t have gone any better. It
will always be a great achievement in my career, because it’s not easy
to play for your country. It really kick-started things and settled me
into international football.”
Although Kane hasn’t quite been able to sustain that prodigious
strike rate of a goal every 79 seconds – he’d have found the net 4,061
times by now if he had – he’s never looked back from a debut moment
that proved to everyone, not least himself, that he was capable of
transferring his burgeoning club form to the international stage.
He’s shone with incredible consistency ever since – consistency that
makes it easy to forget that even after his first goal against Lithuania,
there were still a considerable number of people across England who
pondered whether he might be a one-season wonder.
His phenomenal emergence at Tottenham had been such a surprise- from a series of fairly unremarkable loan spells with Leyton Orient,
Millwall, Leicester and Norwich, to one of the most lethal goalscorers
in the Premier League – that some questioned if he could possibly
maintain it. Opposition supporters even chanted ‘one-season wonder’
at him during club games. Knowing what we know now, that memory
seems almost absurd.
“I know, yeah...” laughs Kane, revealing how he used those chants to
push him on to greater success. “I mean, fans are fans, you can see
the rivalries between clubs, and people try to sing songs and say what
they like. But in a way, you take it as a compliment. They’re chanting
about you because you’re probably one of the top players on the other
Right and below
Making his debut;
then making an
immediate impact