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Sunday, February 05, 2023

"Harry Pain"? - "He's one of our own..."



Harry Kane holds many records, including setting some in the Champions League - yet his long wait to hoist a trophy aloft goes on.

He was the first player to score nine goals in his first nine appearances in the modern-day version of the European Cup.

He was also the fastest to 20 strikes in the Champions League, his 24-match tally two fewer than previous pace-setter Alessandro Del Piero.

He just hasn’t lifted up the Champions League trophy yet - nor indeed won any other team title in his professional career, other than a pre-season friendly Audi Cup after Tottenham Hotspur beat Bayern Munich on penalties in summer 2019.

A recent Museum Of London exhibition was dedicated to the Spurs striker and England captain, showcasing his life and achievements.

This display included a cabinet full of golden boots, hat-trick balls and player-of-the-year prizes.

Yet for all his feats, record-breaking as he goes for both club and country, rival fans will nevertheless taunt about his apparent “failure” so far to go all the way to a team trophy.

A much-shared image shows Kane, runners-up medal around his neck, glumly trudging past the Champions League trophy in Atletico Madrid’s Metropolitano Stadium in June 2019.

Moments later it was held high by his England vice-captain, Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson.

Tottenham were taken to that final by Mauricio Pochettino but are now managed by Antonio Conte - with Jose Mourinho, caretaker boss Ryan Mason and Nuno Esperito Santos having spent spells in the Spurs dug-out in between.

They are now preparing for a Champions League last-sixteen tie against AC Milan.

The tie evokes memories of a pre-Kane 1-0 aggregate win for Spurs over the same Italian opposition in the 2010-2011 season before a side featuring Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart went out 5-0 to Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.

This will be the North London club’s first time in the Champions League knock-out rounds since a tame 4-0 aggregate defeat by Leipzig at the same stage in 2020, when managed by Mourinho but with Kane missing through injury.

His record in Uefa club competitions currently stands at 45 goals in 74 appearances.

These strikes include a brace against Borussia Dortmund in a 3-1 group-stage win at Wembley in September 2017 then the only goal in the same opposition’s Westfalenstadion in March 2019 to help reach that season’s quarter-finals.

That 1-0 win made Kane Tottenham’s all-time leading scorer in Europe while this season he has been closing on Jimmy Greaves’s all-time record of 266 goals for the club.

His 2022 World Cup will be most remembered for his late penalty miss in England’s 2-1 quarter-final defeat to France, but earlier that game he did equal Wayne Rooney’s national record of 53 goals for the country.

He also has his sights set on Alan Shearer’s Premier League high of 260, which has encouraged suggestions he would rebuff any potential interest from foreign clubs for a move.

He made it clear in summer 2021 he was interested in moving on from boyhood club Spurs.

Kane indicated he favoured champions Manchester City, but Pep Guardiola’s club did not offer enough to persuade Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy - and the winter 2021 appointment of Conte to replace Nuno appeared to rejuvenate the forward.

Kane may have won the 2018 World Cup Golden Boot but Spurs have not won a significant trophy since the 2008 League Cup.

They have already been knocked out of that competition this season, while the main aim for the boardroom at least remains staying in the top four to qualify again for the lucrative Champions League.

Kane was not only in the Spurs side losing the 2019 Champions League final, but also League Cup showdowns with Chelsea in 2015 and Manchester City in 2021 - followed by England’s defeat on penalties by Italy in the Euro 2020 final that summer.

Another run to the Champions League final feels even more unlikely than the one in 2019, when Spurs edged out Manchester City in the quarters and Ajax in the semis while Kane was on the sidelines injured - before he returned just in time for the ill-fated final.

The six-year Spurs contract he signed in 2018 means both he and the club could be tempted to cash in a year early this summer, with Bayern and Real likely to be among those interested.

Julian Nagelsmann indicated when questioned last summer he would be interested in Kane, while Lothar Matthaeus also wants his old club to go for him.

The former Germany and Bayern captain insisted: "If you want to play with a number nine again, definitely.

"But Kane is not only up front, but lets himself fall back and distributes the ball. Yet he also knows how to assert himself in the penalty area.”

And leading Madrid newspaper Marca highlighted Kane back in 2017 as "Harry el Fuerte" - "Harry the strong" - while suggesting he follow in the footsteps of Modric and Bale in leaving Spurs for Real.

Other clubs’ fans in England may mock his lack of winners’ medals. but Kane’s figures and relentless performances - both as a finisher and as a playmaker - mark him out as a great for both club and country.

The next few months, however, should provide clues as to whether Tottenham can keep him satisfied or whether he decides he must finally move elsewhere to lift the silverware such a talent and career might so seem to merit.

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