EXCLUSIVE: Harry Kane on breaking records, loan spells and developing late | OneFootball

With the 2022 World Cup just four days away, we could be on the eve of something seismic for England captain Harry Kane.

Should he lead the Three Lions to glory in Qatar, the Tottenham striker will cement his position as one of the country’s greatest ever players.

But even if the trophy doesn’t come back with Gareth Southgate and his side, these next three and a half weeks could still offer something special to Kane on a personal level.

With 51 England goals to his name so far, Kane needs just three more to go ahead of Wayne Rooney and become the nation’s greatest ever marksman.

Kane however, has insisted that he never dreamed of breaking records at the start of his senior career.

“No, I don’t think those specific things are things I thought of,” he said in an exclusive interview with STATSports and OneFootball.

“Of course, I dreamed of playing for England, dreamed of playing for Spurs, playing at Wembley, things like that.

“But I think goal records and records in general, are something that I never really thought about.”

With a potentially record-breaking winter on the horizon though, the England captain has insisted that he sees noting his name down in the history books as extra motivation.

“Obviously now I’m in it and I’ve been doing it for nine, 10 years, you want to try and achieve those things and I’d love to achieve all those things you’ve said there so it’s good to have that ambition.

“It’s good to have those goals and motivation that drives you to be better and I’m someone who’s had that anyway, but having those targets in the background for sure help.”

At the beginning of his career though, it wasn’t immediately obvious that Kane was going to become an all-time great for club and country.

No two players develop the same but as Kane explained, his physicality didn’t properly come until his early 20s.

“I was definitely a late developer. I mean, I didn’t physically develop until I had a growth spurt around 15 years old and kind of caught up with some of the other guys in the age group.

“Then from there, kind of year by year, I just worked on it a lot more and even when I started playing with Mauricio [Pochettino], I was still developing then and still getting stronger and faster.

“So it took me until probably 21 until I felt like I was in physically a really good shape.

“I was I was able to cope and manage and technically be good enough, but I felt like year on year I was definitely developing and it takes time. It’s not something you can rush.

“It’s important not to overdo it too early either because injuries can happen. So I had a good balance. I had good people around me to help me and yeah, kind of peaked at the right moment.”

Having a core group of trusted people around Kane helped develop him into the player he is today, but so did his various loan moves at clubs up and down the English football pyramid.

On paper, the short spells at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester may not have ripped up too many trees.

But for Kane’s own personal development, that trip down the leagues was vital in turning him into one of the best strikers in the modern game.

“Yeah 100% I think my loan spells were the biggest part of my physical development,” he said.

“To be honest, I was 17 when I went out to leave Spurs and play for Leyton Orient, and you go from playing youth, teen football to men’s football.

“The guys are big, strong, fast. They’re smart, they block you off, they grab hold of you when you get too tight. And you have to learn how to deal with it.

“They just made me realise how much I need to improve if I want to play at the highest level because I knew the higher up in the leagues I played, the more physical it’s going to be.

“You realise you need to put in a lot of work and thankfully I was able to do that.”

The hard work has paid off so far for Kane but with potential World Cup glory just a month away, don’t expect him to put on the brakes any time soon.