Harry Kane: ‘If I finish my career without winning a major trophy for England, I would see that as a failure’

Off the back of a season that has seen him rise further up the ranks of the all-time goalscoring greats, Harry Kane is ready to make dreams come true this summer. Alastair Campbell meets a laser-focused man on a mission
Elliot James Kennedy

To adapt an old football cliché, this has been an interview of two halves: conversations separated by a pandemic, a cancelled Uefa European Championship and wholesale changes to the way we live.

The world of football has, of course, experienced its own unprecedented upheavals, and it feels like Harry Kane has somehow been at the heart of every major storyline.

When we first met more than a year ago, it appeared injury had ended Kane’s 2019 /20 club campaign with José Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur, and his Euro 2020 involvement was in the hands of the football gods. But the Euros got bumped back a year and Kane returned from injury to empty stadia but in imperious form: last month the 27-year-old became the first player since Andrew Cole in 1994 to top both the Premier League goals and assists charts. This in a season when Spurs would replace Mourinho after 17 months with one of Kane’s closest friends, Ryan Mason (the week before a cup final), join then sheepishly exit the proposed Super League and then finish in their lowest league position for 11 years. They now face the very real threat of their home-grown superstar finally demanding a surer thing in his quest for trophies, a situation unresolved at time of writing.

‘I’ve had some amazing moments this season, and some very close moments,’ Kane tells me in some extra-time chat at the season’s close. ‘But it’s a shame we just haven’t managed to get over the line as a club.’ Tottenham’s inability to convert promise into prizes is behind the relentless speculation over his future — and maybe motivated the club’s decision to sign up to the controversial Super League. ‘I was as surprised as everyone was,’ he says. ‘I didn’t like the idea of it, if I am totally honest, and I think the right decision was made to stop it.’ If a positive can be taken from the affair, it’s perhaps that supporters’ voices played a huge part in the six English clubs pulling out. ‘I am really proud of the fans for sticking up for what they believe in,’ he says. ‘It shows that the fans are a big part of a football club. It’s important that their voice matters.’

For now, though, it’s all about one thing. The England captain wants international glory at the rescheduled Euros. ‘There is a lot of expectation but there is a lot of belief,’ he says. ‘I know these players and I feel we are ready for anything. There are some great teams — France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal — and to win it we know we have to beat some of those teams, and that is the challenge. But I know for sure, none of those teams will want to face us. A lot of their best players play with us and against us, week in, week out; they know we are a tough opponent for any of them.’

BOSS knitted top, £119 (boss.com)
Elliot James Kennedy

Depressingly for readers of a certain age, Kane has no recollection of Euro 96. The traumatic semi-final exit at the hands of Germany was maybe the closest England have come to winning a major tournament in 55 years — a memory doubtless aiding the motivation of current manager, Gareth Southgate, whose penalty miss proved decisive. ‘I was only three,’ he says. ‘I hope my mum doesn’t mind me revealing her age, but she was born in 1966. My dad was born in 1964, so he was two when England won the World Cup. That is how long ago we are talking about, and it’s down to us to put that right. I think if I finish my career as a footballer without winning a major trophy for England, I would see that as a failure. I know we are still progressing, still got room to improve, but that is the goal and I think we can do that.’

I know these players and I feel we are ready for anything at the Euros

Now, having seen dozens of Kane’s pre- and post-match interviews (polite, friendly, inscrutable), I was expecting a closed book. I found him to be anything but. Within five minutes of us being introduced at our photo shoot with commercial partner Hugo Boss, he had stripped down to his underpants (exclusive: Kane wears Y-fronts not boxers). I note he is an ink-free zone. ‘I’ve got nothing against tattoos if that is what people want to do with their body,’ he says. ‘But it’s not for me. I idolised David Beckham when he was a player, and he started the whole football tattoo thing in a way, but I never went down that route. It’s just not my thing.’ Born in Walthamstow, he attended the same school as Beckham — Chingford Foundation School — albeit two decades later.

Kane is someone who knows his own mind. Coaches speak of his mental strength and focus, and he sets high standards. My probing as to whether he feels he can achieve his club ambitions with Spurs gets nowhere. He does concede that, of the two records within his grasp (he needs 46 goals to pass Jimmy Greaves and become Tottenham’s all-time scorer and 95 to oust Alan Shearer from the top of the all-time Premier League goals list) it is the latter that would mean the most. Then again, why wouldn’t it? ‘When you think how many great strikers there have been in the history of the Premier League, players from all over the world, to be there at the top of that list, that would be a truly special feeling.’

BOSS knitted shirt, £139; trousers, £189 (boss.com)
Elliot James Kennedy

He has time on his side and is hoping to play well into his next decade. ‘I actually think early 30s is when you see some players in their prime now,’ he says. ‘Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski, all in their 30s, and look at how good Zlatan Ibrahimović is — he is nearly 40! Sports science, nutrition, recovery: if you take care of yourself you can keep going and that’s what I intend to do.’ That he is now in that top league of sports stars is underlined by the company he kept when chosen by Boss to spearhead its Bottled United campaign: French defender Raphaël Varane, who played every minute of every game when France won the 2018 World Cup; Toni Kroos, who won the World Cup with Germany in 2014, a Champions League medal with Bayern Munich, and no fewer than three with Real Madrid; Colombia’s all-time top goalscorer Radamel Falcao; and Barcelona and Spain midfielder Sergi Roberto. That is some five-a-side team.

As to whether a career in management would follow, he is unsure. ‘I am not doing the coaching badges and sitting here now, I would say no, but I would also say never say never. Maybe ask me again in five years.’ He remains close to former Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino, who is rumoured, as ES goes to press, to be returning to the club (although the question of whether this would make him likelier to stay, or where he’d be off to if not, were met with ‘no comment’). So close that he was willing on the Argentine’s Paris Saint-Germain team in the Champions League. ‘We got so close to winning it with Mauricio,’ he says. ‘I would love to see him win it. We had a great relationship. He is a great person, a great friend.’ Is it possible for manager and star player to be friends? And didn’t that make it difficult when ‘Poch’ was forced out? ‘He was the boss, the leader, the one that set the standards in how we played and how we trained,’ Kane says. ‘So friendship would never get in the way of what he did on the football side of things. But we became friends in that the things we did and talked about went beyond football.’

Two days after our second shoot, Mourinho was gone, too. ‘It was a shock to all of us,’ says Kane of his departure. ‘I also had a great relationship with José. We had a similar mentality on the pitch, off the pitch.’

I had a great relationship with José. We had a similar mentality on the pitch and off the pitch

You don’t need to be in Kane’s company long to appreciate a love bordering on obsession with football, but even in the 13 months between our two chats, I sense he is broadening his view of the world beyond sport. He supports struggling young players as an ambassador of the Duke of Cambridge’s Heads Together mental health charity, is full of praise for what Marcus Rashford has done in holding the feet of the Government to the fire in getting food to poorer children and is unequivocal in his view that football needs to continue supporting Black Lives Matter.

BOSS shirt, £189; top, £119; trousers, £189; trainers, £239 (boss.com)
Elliot James Kennedy

‘I think it is really important. I know there has been talk about whether taking the knee before the game has lost its impact, but I still think we should do it. We are watched by millions of people around the world. There might be someone watching for the first time, sees us taking the knee, asks what that is about; it keeps that conversation going.’

Though active on social media, he rarely checks what anyone is saying about him. ‘Whether it is too much praise or too much abuse, neither is good for you. It doesn’t help you focus on the job so don’t let it get it you, don’t let it get in the way.’

However, when it comes to racism and hateful abuse players get from fans (including those of their own team) he thinks social media companies are not doing enough. ‘It is too easy for people to go on there, give people a load of abuse, then carry on with their life as if that was normal,’ he says. ‘They would not say it if they saw us in the street. I’ve been talking a lot about this with friends, and they need to find a way of people having to identify themselves when they sign up. There has to be more accountability, more responsibility. As the player, the person getting the abuse, I don’t even look at it. But there are times I might post something and for sure my wife or my brother might take a look at the responses, and it can be hurtful.’

There has been talk about whether taking the knee before the game has lost its impact, but I still think we should do it

One unpleasant example came after posting about his wife, Kate, opting for a natural birth with their second child. ‘She went down the hypnobirthing route and she found it really helpful,’ he says. ‘She was a lot less scared than the first time and she had lots of tips to deal with it, breathing tips to stay calm and she did it with no drugs. I posted something about how proud I was of her, and that’s when the abuse came — like I was saying every woman should have their babies like this. I wasn’t saying anything except how amazing she was. It’s just weird that people can have these opinions about such a personal thing.’

Tottenham Hotspur v Everton FC - Premier League
Kane with his family
Getty Images

A baby boy, Louis, joined his two daughters (Ivy, four, and Vivienne, two) in December 2020, and I ask if he will be disappointed if the children grow up not to love football as he does. ‘I can honestly say I don’t care less,’ he smiles. ‘I am just there to love and support them.’ Has fame changed him? ‘It has changed my life. But it hasn’t changed me as a person. I would say the same about money. It means I can look after my wife and my family. But I can promise you if football was still an amateur sport, and we got paid nothing, I would still be a footballer. There is no other job that could give me the satisfaction this one does. I just happen to be playing in an era when the top players earn a lot.’

Kane has been a prominent footballer for so long, and is so mature in his outlook, it is easy to forget he will turn only 28 in July. He was never a party animal and fatherhood has made him even less so. ‘I want to be with Kate and the family,’ he says. ‘I am not a drinker, I am not someone who wants to be seen out and about. I want to be a top footballer, and that means focus and it means doing everything you need to do to be the best you can be.’

The whole of England hopes, dreams and prays that we benefit from Kane’s unique brand of devout stoicism this summer.

Harry Kane is UK ambassador for the new BOSS Bottled United EDP, available at boots.com

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