100m
6.25m
STARTThe Gacon Test
Spurs’ aggressive style under Mauricio
Pochettino involves relentlessly pressuring
the opposition to force mistakes. The fitness
required to maintain this over 90 minutes is
built up with intense training sessions. The
“Gacon test” is a favourite – of the manager,
if not his players. Named after a fitness
coach at Paris Saint-Germain, where
Pochettino played in the 2000s, it consists
of 45-second runs followed by 15-second
rests. Start at 100m and increase the
distance by 6.25m each time. Two warnings
for failing to complete the distance in 45
seconds, and then you’re out.risible now, but they underscore
the reality that, not very long ago,
Kane wasn’t so much setting the
world on ire as barely warming
the White Hart Lane bench.
What is his secret? Magic boots?
Golden ones?
“Hard work,” Kane explains,
rather prosaically. “I think the
manager [Mauricio Pochettino]
has helped me to become better
as a player. Obviously I’ve
improved physically, too. I’ve got
bigger, stronger and faster.”
EVERYDAY HERO
Pochettino came to Spurs at
the start of the 2014-15 season
from Southampton, where he
had earned a reputation for
developing players. His staf
designed a “power program”
for Kane, consisting of
hamstring, glute and single-
leg exercises to improve his
acceleration and pace, as well
as core work for strength and
stability. Kane also consulted a
sports scientist on the mechanics
of sprinting, looking particularly
at his arm movement.
Kane’s physical development
can partly be attributed to his
age – he is still only 24, a fact that
is often obscured by his mature
demeanour. Though he is clearly
in decent nick, as Men’s Health
can conirm, he is no Hulk. Nor is
he, to use FIFA parlance, a “pace
abuser” who relies on speed to
beat defenders. “My inishing is
probably my best attribute,” Kane
agrees. “But I like to think that
my all-round game is what makes
me who I am: passing, moving,
holding it up.” Deceptively strong,
he frequently surprises markers
when he receives the ball with his
back to the goal by playing
a one-touch pass around the
corner that is diicult to see, let
alone execute.
Kane is a remarkably unselish
striker. “I always do what’s best
for the team,” he says. “So if I
think there’s an option that’s
better than shooting, I’ll do
that.” He calls to mind another
Spurs No.10, who happens to be
Kane’s childhood hero: Teddy
Sheringham. While not the
quickest, he was considered
by many to be among the
cleverest – Alex Ferguson claimed
that the irst yard was in his
head. In January Kane broke
Sheringham’s club record of 97
Premier League goals.
By comparison with Ronaldo,
Messi and Neymar, the world’s
most expensive player, Kane is
resolutely unshowy. He doesn’t
deal in tricks and licks – with,
perhaps, the exception of
the Cruyf turn and strike in
March 2016 against the world
champions Germany in Berlin,
launching a memorable 3-2
comeback from 2-0 down. Kane
just scores, and then scores
some more.
In terms of personality,
he is similarly low key.
Chrome-painted Porsches are
conspicuously absent from his
garage. Perhaps that’s why he
doesn’t always get the credit he
deserves: he is just too normal
to be superhuman. And it’s why,
even as an Arsenal fan, I ind him
annoyingly hard to dislike.FIELD OF VISION
The most curious thing about
Kane’s success is that he
initially seemed to come from
nowhere. In the modern game,
any teenage prodigy who can
do a decent step-over will be
on the radar of every self-
respecting football manager
before he has even started
shaving. He will invariably
be feted for his “tekkers” in
techno-soundtracked YouTube
compilations and snappedup by a super-club for an
exorbitant sum. It’s probably
safe to wager that few videos
of Kane’s unglamorous loan
spells at Leyton Orient, Millwall,
Norwich and Leicester City went
viral – after all, this was back
when the Foxes were still in the
Championship, not yet storming
the Premier League.
“He is a complete player,”
Real Madrid’s manager, Zinedine
Zidane, said of Kane ahead of
los Blancos’ Champions League
group-stage clash with Spurs at
the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium
last October. “[At irst], he did
not seem to be one, but in the
end he is.” Kane scored in the 1-1
draw (with an uncharacteristic
back-heel). The following month,
Tottenham beat Real Madrid 3-1
at Wembley, their temporary
home while their new stadium
is under construction. Kane
contributed with an assist.
On the day of our shoot, the
Spanish giants are rumoured
to be preparing a $360 million
“swoop” for Kane. These days,
it can seem as if anything were
possible in football – but this
is hard to believe. Not that
Real would break the world
transfer record on his behalf,
but that Kane, born in nearby
Walthamstow to a family ofdiehard Spurs supporters, would
leave White Hart Lane and his
boyhood club. At least, not while
they’re going places. Yet Zidane’s
words hint at the essential
mystery of Kane’s ascendance.
He wasn’t one of the best players
in the world. He wasn’t even one
of the best players on the bench.
And then he was. When the Spurs
fans chant, “He’s one of our
own!” it’s as if they can’t quite
believe their luck.
He might be one of their
own, but he nearly wasn’t. While
playing for David Beckham’s
former youth club Ridgeway
Rovers at the age of eight, Kane
was scouted by Arsenal and he
spent a year at the academy
of Spurs’ bitter rivals. In 2015,
a picture of Kane wearing an
Arsenal shirt and celebrating
their 2003-04 title win did
the rounds on social media.
Coincidentally, the image
emerged after Kane had just
scored a brace in a 2-1 north
London derby win.
Neither big nor quick for his
age, Kane was picked up and
promptly released by Watford
before inally joining the Spurs
youth set-up aged 11. He initially
played as a holding midielder,
moving further forward as he
matured. What he lacked in pace