Harry Kane wrote his name in golden letters in the history of the England national football team, thanks to his perseverance as much as his goalscoring appetite.
The Tottenham striker raised his tally of international goals to 54 goals after he scored a goal against Italy from a penalty kick, to set the record for the number of goals with the “Three Lions” team, which he shared with Wayne Rooney. He led his team to a 2-1 win at the start of their Euro 2024 qualifying adventure.
Kane also finally overtook former Tottenham legend, Jimmy Greaves, when he became the club’s all-time top goalscorer in north London.
Despite these personal achievements, Kane’s career still lacks titles because the striker has not won any title yet with his club or his country’s national team, but he played a major role in his country’s return to competing in major tournaments, and the best evidence of that is his reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup in Russia. 2018, then the European Cup final in the summer of 2021.
As soon as Kane surpasses the brightest names in the history of the English national team, such as Rooney, Gary Lineker and Bobby Charlton, it is amazing, but what increases the importance of this achievement is the doubts that accompanied the beginning of his career.
Many doubted Kane’s ability to reach the highest level after joining the Tottenham academy in 2009. Almost two years separated Kane’s first goal for Tottenham against Shamrock Rovers in 2011 and his next against Hull City in 2013.
Tottenham loaned him to Leyton Orient and then Millwall, and he showed some of his scoring abilities, but he reached rock bottom during two loan spells with Leicester City and Norwich City in the 2012-2013 season.
Kane failed to score for Norwich and settled for just two goals with Leicester City, who was playing in the second division.
“Those were the lowest moments of my life,” Keane says of this period. “I was 19, living away from home and not playing. You always have this doubt. If you don’t play there, how are you going to play for Tottenham?”
Despite his struggles, Kane was able to adapt to the physical handling of the Championship player, which was an important step in his maturation to become one of the best strikers in the world.
“This happened a lot when I was on loan,” the Tottenham striker said in a previous interview with the “Daily Mail”. At one point, a defender told me, “I haven’t got a yellow card yet. I will use it against you.”
“The funny thing is that after two minutes we both competed for a header and he ended up on the floor. That made me very happy.”
Former Argentine Tottenham coach Mauricio Pochettino was impressed with Kane’s goalscoring abilities and put his trust in him during the 2014-2015 season.
And Kane was as good as his coach thought he was, and he responded with a series of goals that quickly earned him international fame.
He scored a goal just seconds after making his England debut as a substitute against Lithuania in 2015. But his first experience at a major tournament was the most embarrassing in England’s history.
Caen failed to score in four matches in the 2016 European Cup, as coach Roy Hodgson’s men were knocked out by Iceland in the final price.
This experience did not raise expectations after two years in the World Cup in Russia, but Kane was on time and was crowned top scorer of the tournament with 6 goals to lead his team to the semi-finals for the first time in 28 years, then fourth place.
“It’s a natural instinct,” Kane says of his scoring success. “When I receive the ball, my body takes over and my mind goes blank.”
The “Three Lions” team was just around the corner from winning its first major title since winning the 1966 World Cup on its home soil, when it reached the European Cup final in the summer of 2021 and faced Italy at the famous “Wembley” stadium in London, but the latter prevented it from that by defeating it with kicks. weighting.
Kane experienced another disappointment in the Qatar World Cup 2022 when he missed a penalty kick that would have equalized England against France, but he toppled the ball high to knock his team out in the quarter-finals, losing 1-2.
Kane compensated for that disappointment when he managed to score from a penalty kick also against the Italian goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, to claim the record for the best scorer in the history of his country, raising his tally to 54 goals. European Cup 2024 scheduled in Germany.
