From zero to hero: Kane follows trend of peaking England strikers
“I’M sick of people making excuses for these performances he has to do far more,” former England defender and television analyst Jamie Carragher said of Harry Kane at half-time of the last 16 match with Germany.
Few people would dispute a clinching second half goal at Wembley, a brace in Rome against Ukraine and the Euro 2020 semi-final winner against Denmark counts as “more.” On Sunday, Kane will become just the second England captain after Bobby Moore to lead his team out in a major final. And should England end their 55-year title drought against Italy at Wembley, Kane will lift his maiden trophy to complete an astonishing change of form.
Kane endured a mixed season with boyhood club Tottenham Hotspur and reports suggest his patience on the team matching his own ambition has come to an end. At 27, he is in the prime of his career and a potential move - to Manchester City or elsewhere would seem more fitting of his talents than mid-table Spurs.
But failure to score in the group stage, while contributing little overall, riled his critics.
“Harry’s got to offer more,” said former England striker Alan Shearer. “He’s still got to do more for me and patience will be running out.” Manager Gareth Southgate, however, had made it clear his faith in Kane remained while his captain struggled.
“Throughout the time I’ve been England manager I must have managed these sorts of questions about Harry in three or four different periods of time, and inevitably he’s come through those periods and scored important goals for us and played exceptionally well,” he said.
Southgate - as with virtually everything he’s done this tournament - was proved right as Kane headed in against Germany to cap a famous win and needed only minutes to break the deadlock against Ukraine.
And while he missed from the spot in extra-time against Denmark, the rebound was coolly converted to take England one game from glory.
Tournament top scorer at the 2018 World Cup, Kane struck several early goals and weakened as England eventually lost out in the semi-finals.
The peak this time has been calculated differently.
The Euro 2020 final on Sunday pits England striker Harry Kane against a formidable Italian defence in his bid for a first senior trophy.
“I felt maybe in Russia I started on fire, scored loads of goals, then maybe didn’t have my best performances in the most important games: the quarters and the semi-finals,” he said after the group phase.
“So, coming into this, physically, I wanted to make sure I was peaking at the right time and obviously we won’t know until Tuesday night (the Germany game) if that’s the case, but that’s the way I feel it’s going.” Kane is following in the footsteps of two other great English strikers, Gary Lineker and Shearer at major tournaments.
Lineker ended a long goalless drought in the third game of the 1986 World Cup to finish top scorer on six while Shearer went 12 without scoring for England before Euro 96 - only to finish top scorer with five.
Kane has four at Euro 2020, one behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Patrik Schick on five, but doesn’t want to emulate his predecessors too closely - they didn’t lift the trophy, after all.
“It’s the first time in our history as a nation, getting through to the European final at Wembley, and it’s one of the proudest moments in my life, for sure,” he said after the Denmark game.
“But we haven’t won it yet, we’ve got one more to go.”