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From no trophies to Ballon d’Or, the Harry Kane story
In his fourth season at Bayern Munich, Harry Kane is a Ballon d'Or winner, one who has ended a 25-year wait for England.
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Harry Kane is a story of perseverance and hard work. The 33-year-old is also a team player; as a child, he was ready to even play in goal. He had to wait 15 years for his major trophy. And now, in his fourth season at Bayern Munich, he is a Ballon d'Or winner, one who has ended a 25-year wait for England. “It feels really, really like a dream,” said Kane.
His journey nearly ended before it could begin. With dreams of being a professional footballer, Kane went for trials at Arsenal. He was rejected. Next stop: Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal’s North London rivals. Rejected again.
“He was chubby, not very athletic, and we got it wrong,” Liam Brady, the former Ireland international who was Arsenal’s academy coordinator at the time, admitted in a 2018 interview with “Corriere della Sera.”
Deep Dive
The Arsenal snub spurred him on. “I was only eight when they let me go, but every time we played them, I thought: 'Alright, we'll see who's right and who's wrong'," he wrote in The Players' Tribune. Kane has 16 career goals against Arsenal.
Kane returned to Ridgeway Rovers before joining Watford's youth set-up. From there, he went for a six-week trial at Tottenham and was initially cast-off. The best way to get noticed by a club is to score against them and Kane did that. A hattrick for Watford against Tottenham forced a rethink and Kane was signed by them. He was 11.
It was the start of a relationship that survived a number of loan periods and lasted 19 years. Kane made his senior team debut against Heart of Midlothian in the Europa League in August 2011. His first Premier League appearance came one year later, against Newcastle. By the time Kane left for Bayern Munich in 2023 as Bundesliga’s most expensive signing, he had scored 280 goals for Tottenham. No one has as many.
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When he moved, Kane was also England’s leading scorer overtaking Wayne Rooney’s tally of 53. That tally has grown to 91 international goals and at 125 caps, Kane has equalled the England record with Peter Shilton.
But even after the goals and records, a major trophy continued to elude Kane. A runners-up medal from the 2019 Champions League, where Tottenham lost to Liverpool, was the closest he had come.
It was getting to him. Both sides of Manchester wanted him, but it didn’t work out, and he joined Bayern Munich, who needed a striker to replace Robert Lewandowski.
Kane settled into the role with little trouble. Scoring goals was never a problem for him, whether for club or country, and at Bayern, he finally began to experience team success. Serial Bundesliga winners Bayern were thwarted by Xavi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen in Kane’s first season but since then he has won the league in 2024-25 and 2025-26. The club and Harry Kane have got together, grown together and achieved the highest aims together,” said Bayern president Herbert Hainer.
A Ballon d'Or-worthy season
Even by his high standards, last season was extraordinary for Kane. He scored 73 goals and had 8 assists for club and country, finished as Europe's top scorer, broke records in Germany with Bayern Munich, and captained England to a third-place finish. En route, Kane also became England’s most successful goalscorer in World Cup finals. He has 14, four more than previous record holder Gary Lineker. Kane has played three World Cups, Lineker two.
But there is much more to Kane than goals. He has emerged leader at Bayern and has led England since 2018. He can play No.9 and often No.10 dropping deep to draw away markers and create space for his teammates. In the Champions League match against Arsenal last week, Opta said Kane was the first player to have scored, assisted and taken a goalkick in the competition since detailed data began to be maintained in 2003-04.
“I ran out of superlatives to describe your performances a long time ago, but I’m delighted to see that you have now been formally recognised by the football world,” said England head coach Thomas Tuchel.
Michael Owen was the last English player to win the Ballon, in 2001. Only one player from England, Kevin Keegan, has won it twice. Between 2008 and 2017, it was shared between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi won it thrice more since to take his tally to eight; Ronaldo has five.
It’s still small returns for a country that birthed organised football, framed the rules and runs the world’s best league. English players were often behind their counterparts from Spain, Germany and Brazil. Or a Croat. The Messi-Ronaldo duopoly was ended by Luka Modric in 2018.
Like Messi, Ronaldo and Modric, Kane’s career is unlikely to end any time soon. He has enough to spur him on: the Champions League and a major trophy for England are but two.
