A year and a half after the cruel disappointment experienced on home soil, at Wembley, in the Euro final against Italy (1-1, 2-3 on pens), Harry Kane sets out again to attack a new English dream. If they still risk singing throughout the month of November that the “Football is coming home” (football returns home, in VF), fans of the Three Lions hope to vibrate on the exploits of their attacker, threat number 1 of the troop of Gareth Southgate. Who will try, like four years ago in Russia, to finish the competition’s golden shoe and, this time, perhaps to break the English curse.
It wasn’t obvious that he was going to become as good as he is, [c’est-à-dire] the greatest goalscorer the Premier League may have ever known
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Sacred only once during the planetary high mass of football, in 1966, during an edition organized across the Channel, the nation from which was born the most popular sport in the world despairs, every four years, to one day again lift the trophy that every footballer dreams of having in their hands. For Harry Kane, it would be the consecration of a career built first in anonymity, and which, for several years, has radiated world football.
Having become the third top scorer in the history of the Premier League, behind Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney, with his 195 goals, including 12 since the start of the season with the Tottenham jersey, the 29-year-old player has undergone a radical change, since his professional debut. A smooth start for the Spurs-educated player, as New Zealand striker Chris Wood, who crossed paths with Kane at Leicester in 2013, recalled for our new series ‘The World at their feet’ : “It wasn’t obvious that he was going to become as good as he is, [c’est-à-dire] the greatest goalscorer the Premier League may have ever known”.
A timid loan to Leicester, then the explosion
Whoever plays this season with Newcastle thus remembers a player who was already very complete, at least in training: “Left foot, right foot, his finish was already fantastic, he had a lot of class”. “But he had to succeed in translating that into a match situation”, explains Wood, in memory of these few months shared in the Championship with the Englishman, during the 2012-2013 season. The Foxes, in search of a promotion in the first division, had appealed to Kane from February to May 2013, while the latter had already been loaned by Tottenham, in the first part of the season, to Norwich City.
He was given a chance and he took it with both hands, to transform into the monster and scoring beast he is today.
But at the time, the serial scorer had a hard time existing and making an impression. To mark all short besides, since at the time of its passage at the champions of England 2016, it will find the way of the nets only twice in 15 appearances in D2. While Leicester will fail in the promotion final against Watford, Kane will then live a complicated season, between injuries and lack of confidence from his coaches, a certain André Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood. Before the explosion of the phenomenon, author of 31 goals, all competitions combined, during the year 2014-2015.
“I think when he came back from Leicester it clicked. He was given a chance and he took it with both hands, to turn into this monster and scoring beast that he is today. ‘today’, says Chris Wood, thinking back to that time. This convincing exercise, which will finally earn him a call, in March 2015, for the first time in the national team, where he now wears the captain’s armband.
Harry Maguire et Harry Kane
Credit: Getty Images
Having confirmed in passing, for seven years, its status as “first of the attackers to fear”, as his teammate Conor Coady put on, with a big smile on his face, at a press conference, a few days before the start of the World Cup. With his six goals scored in the World Cup won by the France team, the one who now totals 51 achievements in 75 selections with the Three Lions had fully taken part in the adventure of his people until the semi-finals, the best England’s run in the competition since 1990.
We’re going to this tournament to win it because we believe we can.
Kane, who could become the top scorer in the history of England (Rooney is only two lengths ahead, with 53 goals) at the World Cup has, in any case, the firm intention of succeeding Blues. This is what he said on the microphone of Sky Sportsa few days before the start of the competition: “We’re going to this tournament to win it because we believe we can. It would be a mistake to think otherwise. What’s the point of going to a World Cup and not believing you can bring the trophy at home? It’s going to be tough and we’re going to have to work extremely hard, get a little lucky and do a lot of things to get there.”he hammered.
Believing in yourself, against all odds, is what has allowed the shy and clumsy striker to assert himself as an exceptional number 9, and to attract the greed of the biggest clubs in the world, including Real Madrid. What if it also worked for the Three Lions?
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