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There are moments when Harry Kane is watching younger players conduct a modern finishing session and starts to get irritated.
“The ball comes to you, you take a touch and finish… it’s not really realistic,” he says. “I try and do realistic training where it’s game scenarios, bobbly ball, half a second to swivel and hit, crosses that have been whipped in at fast tempo. It helps separate the good players and the top players.”
Such realistic sessions have also helped lead to what Kane himself calls “unrealistic” targets.
One of those was 100 caps for England, which the 31-year-old will celebrate when he starts Tuesday’s Nations League match against Finland at Wembley. That’s the reason he is sitting down with media at England’s base this week, the Tottenham Hotspur Training Centre, but he’s reflecting on a lot more than the route here. That’s because the early doubts about him were much stronger than whether he would get even a handful of caps, let alone become England’s 10th centurion.
A theme of his career has been proving people wrong, mostly through the precision of finishing he has worked so hard on. Kane talks about being released by Arsenal, never being considered “the next big thing”, some bad loans, initially being dismissed as a one-season wonder and now the idea he is physically waning.
Kane’s stance on the last point is illustrated by the fact he is now targeting 100 England goals.
“It’s possible, it’s there,” he says. “What is it, 34 [more] goals? I feel like I am in a good place and these are good targets to try and reach. Some people may see them as unrealistic but I would rather go for something unrealistic and not quite make it.”
While he again talks about looking to Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and, of course, his favourite NFL player Tom Brady, it is worth remembering that he first spoke about their example as a young player at Tottenham Hotspur. People scoffed then, as they have always done.
“Probably throughout my whole career, really,” Kane says of people doubting him. “Starting from when I was eight years old being released from Arsenal. That might have built a bit of desire to prove them wrong when I was that age. And even when I first came to Spurs … I was close to being released. I was never the guy that everyone thought was going to go on and do what I’ve done.
“I think that desire to improve, just step by step in my career... I went on loan, had a couple of good loans, a couple of not so good but still had to fight for my place, fight for the opportunity to show that I could play at the level I wanted to, in the Premier League at that time and England. Throughout my career, there have always been people who doubted me.”
Far from speaking about this with any kind of vindication, though, Kane is much more philosophical.
Players ahead of me like Ronaldo have helped prove I can be at this level for a long time— Harry Kane
“It almost motivates me to get even better,” he says. “It helps me be consistent. Tom Brady was a big inspiration of mine.
“He is a prime example of this and he went on to become the greatest in his sport. But, when he was 42, 43, he was still having to prove people wrong and prove to himself he was good enough. I think that until I stop playing, I will always have that attitude and I think deep down that motivates me to be better when I’m training, when I’m doing the finishing sessions on my own, stuff that I probably might not have to do still but I want to do it and I want to prove that there’s room for improvement.”
This is where Kane gets into one of those rare sessions with an elite professional where they really engage in their craft. He feels he did have a natural talent for finishing but it needed honing.
“I’ve always been someone able to score goals, even when I was six, seven years old,” Kane explains. “I think part of it is just instinct, knowing where the ball is going to be, getting into areas where you know it’s going to drop, but I had to work extremely hard at my finishing, especially the early years at Spurs where I wasn’t the player I am now.
“I saw Bradley Allen [Tottenham academy coach] today, and he was a big part of when I started to change. I did a lot of sessions with Brad at under-15 level.
“Even now, I’m still doing finishing sessions. You’ve got the data more, you can see what goals are scored from what position in the box, so you can start to have your movements in that aspect change a little bit. Ultimately, I really enjoy being out there working on my finishing. It’s kind of my happy place.”
You can see the smile as he talks about Allen working him through “early finishes, one-touch finishes” and how he was made to work on his left foot a lot – the “realistic” scenarios. It’s also made him a role model for younger teammates. “Sometimes you’ll do a group finishing session but I might go away on my own, set up more of a specific one for me, then players will come over and join in my sessions,” he says.
The quirk is that many of the players looking to learn are now forward-winger hybrids rather than Kane’s type of striker. He feels Messi, Ronaldo and Pep Guardiola have influenced that evolution.
“Maybe just the way football is going, as well, being able to drop into different areas. It might come back around, and someone like Pep might come out with an out-and-out nine and everyone will play that way again. He’s got one now [Erling Haaland] and it’s working pretty well! Who knows, it’s just the way football evolves but I think, definitely, just a generation watching some of the best wingers in the world motivated them to be more that type.”
Kane plans on hanging around a while yet, despite the questions about his physical condition from Euro 2024. He feels part of it is “perception” from a wider team drop-off.
“It was like, ‘Why is he not scoring goals?’ but in the tournament, I felt good. Just as a team, I felt we were not quite clicking. Quite a few of the lads, if we talk honestly, we did not perform as well as we have done in other tournaments. At 31, I am in a good place both mentally and physically and some of the players ahead of me like Ronaldo have helped prove to me I can be at this level for a long time.”
The ability to win silverware is that last remaining doubt, of course, but he thinks only final touches are needed. They might come under Lee Carsley. Such discussion feels a different world to that first international against Lithuania under Roy Hodgson back in 2015. Typically, Kane was made to wait that bit more, to make his debut as a substitute.
“I think the ball didn’t go out for about four or five minutes and I was just, like, someone make a foul or something!” he remembers. “There was a lot of talk in the build-up to that camp because I was playing well for Spurs. I got a great reception and within a couple of minutes, I scored a goal… I don’t think I could have dreamed it any better.”
It was the first of 66 goals, so far. His favourites are the strike against Germany in the last 16 of Euro 2020 and the stoppage-time match-winning header in the 2-1 victory over Tunisia at the 2018 World Cup. The favourite in terms of technique, however, is the long-range strike away to Poland in 2021.
“There’s been a few good ones,” he laughs. It isn’t said with cockiness but simply Kane’s assurance. That is what has got him this far.
