Some time ago, when Harry Kane was eight years old, he took a routine walk to the local park in his hometown of Chingford (a suburb in north-east London) with his dad and brother to play football.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“No goals. No proper pitch. Just give us some grass and two trees and we were happy,” Kane remembered back in 2018 in an essay for the Players\u2019 Tribune.<\/p>\n
It was on this day in the park when he received some disappointing news.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Arsenal have released you,” said his father.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the time, a young Kane had been part of Arsenal\u2019s youth team, which was a very dangerous thing to do in a family full of Tottenham Hotspur supporters who lived 20 minutes from White Hart Lane. But alas, a boy had to start somewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Arsenal, however, decided to let go of him and per Liam Brady, a club icon and then-academy director, the Gunners decided Kane sadly was not athletic enough and perhaps “a bit chubby.”<\/p>\n
(Photo by FRANCK FIFE \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n After hearing this news, his father, however, didn\u2019t show disappointment nor frustration. He didn\u2019t get on the phone to complain or criticize Brady or make a statement to condemn Arsenal. He simply looked at his son, put his arm around him and said,<\/p>\n “Don\u2019t worry, Harry. We\u2019ll work harder \u2014 and we\u2019ll go on and we\u2019ll find another club, alright?”<\/p>\n That sentiment stayed with Harry Kane and quite simply, it exemplified what he is all about: a silent crafter who piece by piece, step by step, worked incredibly hard on his objectives to become the world\u2019s best.<\/p>\n After Arsenal\u2019s rejection, Kane returned to his local team Ridgeway Rovers before a scout eventually recruited him for Watford. It was in a game against Tottenham where he eventually ended up with Spurs. But even after joining, he still had to prove his worth. He went on loan across the English pyramid throughout his young career and even when he graduated to the first team, he was still third choice striker. Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s arrival in 2014 was a sparkling opportunity but Kane still had to prove his worth as that season, the Argentinian manager opted for Emanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado.<\/p>\n (Photo by Calvin Hernandez\/Eurasia Sport Images\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n But I do believe it because this is a testament of Kane\u2019s work ethic and his obsession to be better than yesterday.<\/p>\n “Work hard in silence. Let success be your noise,” he posted after winning on Monday night. And that\u2019s his career. A series of silent, dedicated tasks where every day is an opportunity to improve and what we now see in front of us is the most complete striker of his generation\u2013perhaps ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n *Loan clubs:<\/b>\u00a0Leyton Orient (2011), 5 goals in 18 games \u00b7 Millwall (2012), 9 goals in 27 games \u00b7 Norwich City (2012-13), 0 goals in 5 games \u00b7 Leicester City (2013), 2 goals in 15 games.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why I am so happy for his Ballon d\u2019Or success, thanks to a remarkable 2025-2026 campaign where he scored an individual record of 73 goals for club and country, helped Bayern Munich win a domestic treble and led England to its best ever finish at the World Cup since 1966. He became the first English men\u2019s player to win the Ballon d’Or since Michael Owen in 2001 and the first Londoner to do so. The fact that it happened in his home city is that much sweeter. For Kane, a major inspiration to become a striker was Ronaldo Nazario and it was the Brazilian legend who gave him the award.<\/p>\n Harry Kane, the boy who got rejected for not being athletic enough, is now a Ballon d\u2019Or winner. If that\u2019s not a lesson on grit, endurance and a will to keep going\u2014then I don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n AS FOR THE<\/strong> future? Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 remains in the hunt for the trophy and at 27 years old, there is still time. But the objectives for the French superstar and Real Madrid have now become more aggressive this season. Mbapp\u00e9, a goalscorer of pure talent, has not yet won a Champions League nor La Liga\u2014and he knows that\u2019s a hurdle to be severely overcome.<\/p>\n (Photo by FRANCK FIFE \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Some time ago, when Harry Kane was eight years old, he took a routine walk to the local park in his hometown of Chingford (a suburb in north-east London) with his dad and brother to play football.\u00a0 “No goals. No proper pitch. Just give us some grass and two trees and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}