Harry Kane speaks REVEALS one thing “HE will do now to Make Tottenham fans happy, fans are all in shock
Harry Kane might have ended up sharing the Euro 2024 Golden Boot, but England’s captain and record goalscorer knows the question marks surrounding him this time were mostly justified.
Kane cut a forlorn figure at the final whistle in Berlin on Sunday night as England faced heartbreak once again, losing in consecutive European Championship finals. Gareth Southgate’s men had given themselves a chance, but this time, it had little to do with their previously talismanic skipper.
England fought back after Nico Williams’ second-half goal with substitute Cole Palmer’s low strike from outside the box. However, it wasn’t enough as Mikel Oyarzabal scored the winning goal for Spain in the final five minutes. Kane struggled in Germany, managing just 13 touches of the ball, winning only two aerial duels, and completing only five of his 10 passes. His lone shot was blocked, and Southgate substituted him on the hour mark for Ollie Watkins. England’s record goalscorer had few complaints after a forgettable 60 minutes.
Kane’s display in the Euro 2024 final meant that in the 181 minutes he played across both the Euro 2020 and 2024 finals, he had just one shot, one touch in the opposition box, and only 58 touches of the ball in total. Despite scoring three goals in the tournament, the 30-year-old ended up with the top scorer prize, shared with Dani Olmo, Cody Gakpo, Georges Mikautadze, Jamal Musiala, and Ivan Schranz. This accolade places him alongside Gerd Muller as the only two players to finish as the top scorer at both a World Cup and a European Championship.
However, individual awards were not what Kane sought in Germany. He knows that Muller won both the World Cup and European Championships in addition to his personal accolades. This tournament saw the country look to Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, and Cole Palmer for inspiration, rather than Kane or Watkins after his dramatic semi-final winner.
Throughout the tournament, Kane did not seem right or move freely. A back injury that hampered the end of his first season in Munich, where he scored 44 goals in 45 games and provided 12 assists, perhaps still lingered. Alternatively, the missed games in the month before the tournament could explain his lack of sharpness but not his limited mobility. Southgate mentioned after the final that the missed matches left Kane not in the condition he would have wanted to be in. Others will point to Southgate’s system and question whether it maximized Kane’s potential, one of the world’s best goalscorers.
Tottenham supporters know that the energetic, high-pressing Kane of old became more selective with that sort of movement in later seasons due to repeated ankle injuries and a serious hamstring injury. Kane became more impactful as a deeper-lying playmaker, with fast runners around him who he could either assist or provide passes to get them behind the defense before sweeping into the box for the return ball.
Kane is one of the best finishers around, which is why he has smashed records with his goals at Bayern. He has won not only the Golden Boot at the World Cup and Euros but also in the Premier League (three times), Bundesliga, and Champions League, as well as the Golden Shoe as Europe’s top goalscorer. Kane has scored 351 goals in his senior club career and another 66 for England, making it an astounding 417 times he’s found the net for club and country. His quality in the final third is unquestionable.
However, his performances in big matches at the business end of tournaments will continue to be scrutinized. Kane has come close many times, and sometimes injuries and a lack of sharpness have played a part. Other times, he has performed well, but his teammates have not. Sometimes he has been part of a sub-par team performance, but people understandably look to him to drag his side through the big matches as he does the others. Doubts about his impact in big matches will linger until he wins a trophy. It won’t matter that he became the leading European scorer in knockout matches in both European Championship and World Cup history with nine goals in 14 matches this month.
Kane has contributed in some big tournament games. The England captain scored in extra-time at Wembley against Denmark in the Euro 2020 semi-final