This summer Harry Kane will find himself in familiar territory as he prepares to lead England into Euro 2024.
The Bundesliga’s top scorer, Kane has settled to life in Germany with ease. Frustrated by life at Tottenham, Kane made the blockbuster move to German Giants Bayern Munich at the start of the 2023 / 2024 season. Viewed as the final piece of Thomas Tuchel’s puzzle, the one thing that Kane’s move was meant to secure was trophies, but after a desperately disappointing season, Bayern ended up without a trophy for the first time since 2012.
Another golden chance has presented itself as England will land in Germany as the heavy favourites and Kane will hope to be the man to help the men’s side with their first international trophy since the 1966 World Cup.
One of Europe’s greatest goal-scorers, Kane’s journey to the top of the game has been hard. From humble beginnings and having had to overcome several setbacks, let’s take a quick look back at Kane’s football journey.
Tottenham’s greatest ever scorer started life at Arsenal
Having started playing football at 5, a young Harry Kane clearly had the talent to stand out from his peers.
Snapped up by Arsenal when just seven, Kane’s formative years would see him play for the Gunners until he was 9. Deemed not good enough to make the grade, he was then snapped up by North London rivals Tottenham, joining the club at 11.
Steadily making his way through the ranks at Spurs, Kane made loan moves to Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester. Without setting the world on fire at any of those moves, time at the top level looked to be running for Kane.
However, everything would change when Tim Sherwood was appointed as the interim Tottenham boss in 2014. Sherwood knew Kane well from their time together at the Tottenham academy and believed that his goal scoring exploits could help propel Tottenham to the next level.
Under new boss Mauricio Pochettino, Kane initially struggled to break into the Tottenham starting eleven, however that all changed when Kane scored a vital goal in a 2-1 victory away at Aston Villa.
Replacing the ailing Roberto Soldado, Kane became a goal machine and announced himself on a global stage when scoring twice in a dominant 5-3 victory over bitter London rivals Chelsea.
From that moment Kane would become undroppable. Topping the Premier League goalscoring charts on three separate occasions, Kane couldn’t quite lead Tottenham over the line when it came to winning trophies.
Beaten Champions League finalists in 2019, Spurs would also lose several domestic cup semi-finals and finals.
With his contract at Spurs coming to an end in 2024, Kane made it clear to the Tottenham hierarchy that he wouldn’t be willing to sign a new deal. With Spurs keen to cash in on their star man, Kane would move to Germany for a fee close to 100 million euros.
He would depart Tottenham after a career that lasted for 19 years and as the club’s all time leading goal scorer with 280 goals.
Kane flourishes on the international stage
After his great goal-scoring exploits for Tottenham in the Premier League, it wasn’t a surprise that Kane earned his first England call up in 2015.
Scoring on his debut, Kane was quick to cement his place in the team’s starting eleven.
His first international tournament for England would come at Euro 2016. Trusted to lead the line by Roy Hodgson, the tournament would end in disaster with England losing in the last 16 to minnows, Iceland.
Upon Wayne Rooney retiring from the international game, and Gareth Southgate installed as the new manager, Kane was made the England captain in the build up to the 2018 World Cup.
Showing no signs of being burdened by the captain’s armband, Kane kept on finding the back of the net and was well on his way to breaking Wayne Rooney’s England goal-scoring record.
At the World Cup, Kane would end up with the golden boot, becoming only the second Englishman to win the accolade since Gary Linekar.
After losing in the final of Euro 2020, England were knocked out of the 2022 World Cup by eventual finalists France.
Despite missing out on team honours, Kane became England’s all time leading scorer when finding the back of the net in a Euro 2024 qualifying game against Italy.
Euro 2024 will be Kane’s third European Championships and he will hope that he will end it as the tournament’s top scorer.
With some of the best bookmakers in the UK offering a host of free bets, Kane to end the tournament as the golden boot winner will be popular. However for Kane the time for personal glory needs to be put to the side. This is the time for Kane and England to win on the international stage and anything less than glory, will be viewed as a massive disappointment.
