Why Euro 2024 means more to Harry Kane – England’s unique soldier

Mere hours after Harry Kane knew he would be ending another club season without a trophy, Bayern Munich made him and the rest of the squad attend a banquet. It wasn’t what most would have chosen to do after the bitter Champions League semi-final elimination to Real Madrid, but it is a custom for the German club.

It wasn’t the only new thing Kane had to endure. Although he has obviously experienced trophy disappointment on many occasions, it has never been when success was so expected. Kane had made the hard choice to leave Tottenham Hotspur for Bayern, only to suddenly find success wasn’t coming easy for the perennial German champions. It did hit him. The striker still registered this most painful of seasons – as he put it himself – in the way he always does. He internalised it and persevered. It was why the banquet suited him more than most. It helped him “get on with it”, in the way he always does.

This has been Kane’s admirably persistent attitude to every major disappointment of his career: the 2015-16 battle at Stamford Bridge, the 2018 World Cup miss against Croatia, the 2019 Champions League final, Euro 2020 heartbreak and that penalty miss against France in Qatar.

It is why Euro 2024 carries more resonance for Kane than any England player, for reasons beyond the simple fact he is the only member of the squad to have featured in every Gareth Southgate tournament bar Kyle Walker and John Stones. The Manchester City duo have won plenty in their careers, while Kane has instead been branded a “loser”, to go with all manner of other dismissals of him. That is some of this tournament’s wider significance.

Consequently, a Euro 2024 medal would mean far more to Kane than anyone else, especially in a country where he has only deepened his legacy as one of the game’s great strikers – if not one of the great champions. A first season in Germany has brought 49 goals for club and country. Victory in Berlin on 14 July wouldn’t quite be coming home but sending it home.

Kane now has a laser focus on exactly that outcome, which has struck some of England’s younger players. Adam Wharton, who Bayern Munich also want, has been seeking his counsel. That attitude of perseverance, of just getting on with it, is why Kane has so consistently performed at the same level no matter what is going on around him or any personal disappointments. Kane hasn’t dropped below 24 goals in a season since first properly breaking through for Spurs in 2014. That’s an entire decade of a ratio of 0.7 goals per game: 382 in 545. Teammates describe it as “almost robotic”. It is astounding.

In the same way Kane doesn’t let any miss in any game affect the next chance, he doesn’t let any setback affect the next campaign. Some in football describe this as the necessary “delusion” of the striker. Kane’s great predecessors with England – Alan Shearer and Michael Owen – were said to have it in abundance. It was their astounding self-belief that they would take the next chance. They could miss five and it wouldn’t subdue them.

There is obviously some of that with Kane but it does feel a little different and deeper. He doesn’t have an abrasive or arrogant character, after all. He is assertive but courteous, almost staid.

There’s nearly a dutiful quality, like a soldier rather than a robot. That’s perhaps why Kane excelled when Southgate put the squad through marine training to test their leadership skills in 2017. The striker stood out.

It all means he stands out in these Euros, too. For all of England’s new generational talent, Kane offers something genuinely distinctive and perhaps old-fashioned – that may soon be consigned to history. He guarantees goals. Kane is one of just five players picked for this summer’s squads who has scored more than 50 for his country.

There’s an irony to that, given Kane was previously talked about as a player who was bringing the No 9 role back. Instead, the tactical evolution of the game has ensured there’s been a gap in the production line. So, while this isn’t to say that the current young generation can’t develop into finishers in the same way, Kane is one of the very few players at these Euros with a record that creates an aura. It is why the forward remains Southgate’s most important player. There is still a huge dependence on Kane for goals.

Players at Euro 2024 with more than 30 international goals

Those numbers almost exclusively come from intelligent movement and extraordinarily precise finishing. Kane’s innate instinct for goals has been honed so it’s completely maximised. That is illustrated by how he still approaches finishes with a mindset that former Tottenham striker Clive Allen taught him early in his career. That is to shoot quickly, to catch goalkeepers out. Kane trained on this until it was seamless. It is certainly rare to see him struggle to get his feet right.

His technique may not be unparalleled, in the manner of the preternaturally gifted, but it is unerring. It has also evolved. One of the major factors with Kane is that he isn’t just a No 9 for England but a No 10. The last three seasons have seen him grow into a creator as much as a finisher, with his assist numbers exploding.

There was a sense within the squad that this could have done with being recalibrated a bit after the 2022 World Cup. It wasn’t quite Kane’s fault but he was almost becoming too focal in play, slowing the team down. Part of that was because England suddenly had so many players who could operate in that area.

There are arguably even more now, with Jude Bellingham’s rise meaning he is another who can fill that hole, just like Phil Foden.

Except, very suddenly, Southgate has decided to change the dynamic of the whole attack. Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling, Mason Mount, Jack Grealish and – admittedly less significantly – James Maddison and Jadon Sancho won’t be there, neither will previous partners like Dele Alli. There is now a rare mystery about how exactly Southgate sets up for England’s first game against Serbia on Sunday.

There is no doubt about Kane, though. He has been the one constant through all of this, along with his goals. They come from a mindset where he immediately consigns every miss and every disappointment to history. He just gets on with it.

Euro 2024 won’t be Kane’s last chance to win a major trophy, of course. But it might be the opportunity that means the most. Kane, for once, could do with a different finish.

England vs Serbia will screen live on BBC One on Sunday 16 June at 8pm