Two years is a long time in football. In the summer of 2013, on the back of two undistinguished and largely unheralded loan spells at Leicester and Norwich, Harry Kane was England’s main striker in the Under-20 World Cup in Turkey. Now he is once again leading the line for his country in an international youth tournament but this time, here at the European Under-21 Championship, his preceding season involved a deluge of goals for Tottenham Hotspur and a full England debut.
Whereas the 2013 Kane enjoyed relative anonymity the 2015 version cannot walk the 100 yards or so from the team hotel in Olomouc to the Legionarska training ground next door without fielding requests for autographs and photos. On Spurs’ tour of Asia and Australia last month a stroll to a Sydney shopping centre had to be abandoned when hordes of fans mobbed Kane and two team-mates en route. There is a Twitter campaign aimed at making him the man to join Lionel Messi on the front cover of the Fifa 16 video game.
England will hope that the differences are not only off the field. In Turkey Peter Taylor’s Under-20s failed to win a game and finished bottom of a group that also included Chile, Egypt and Iraq. Kane could have been forgiven had the opening defeat for the Under-21s against Portugal in Uherske Hradiste on Thursday raised the spectre of tournaments past but the 21-year-old remains confident the team can recover and return to winning ways against Sweden on Sunday.
“We were 2-0 up and in cruise control mode [against Iraq],” said Kane. “They got a penalty, then ended up scoring in the last minute. As a group that hit us hard and we never really recovered. We drew with Chile in the next game but it isn’t going to happen in this group. We’ve got too many experienced players who have been there before and done it not to put it right. We know what we have to do.”
His development since that troublesome tournament in Turkey has been rapid and the trappings accompanying new-found fame at times mind-boggling. Kane describes that shopping trip in Sydney as the most surreal experience of his career – the players had to make their escape back to the team hotel by hopping on to a coach, which was fortunately nearby – but is unflustered by the attention.
“I don’t mind it,” he said. “Obviously it’s just the start for me. Maybe in the years to come I’ll get a bit grumpy but no, it’s fine. I’ve always been happy to talk to fans, to do things with fans. Sometimes you don’t know how far they’ve travelled just to meet you. So if you don’t sign something or don’t talk to them it could be heartbreaking for them.
“I was a fan once and I’d always want someone I’ve looked up to to be a nice guy and that’s what I try and be. I don’t think that will ever change. I think I’ll always sign stuff for fans and take pictures because I know how much it means.”
Kane’s focus for the next few days, though, will be on keeping England in the tournament. Against Portugal there were moments when a gap in class was apparent. For example, when Monaco’s Bernardo Silva and Sporting’s João Mário, both of whom played Champions League football last season, were breaking past Nathaniel Chalobah, who ended the season at Reading, and on towards Middlesbrough’s Ben Gibson and Leicester’s Liam Moore in the centre of the England defence. But the gap was not as big as those CVs suggest. And Rui Jorge’s side were arguably the most impressive of the eight here in the first round of matches.
Sweden, who beat Italy despite being reduced to 10 men and went 1-0 down after 28 minutes, offer a different threat, a more direct, muscular and – whisper it – typically English approach in their 4-4-2 formation. That could allow greater freedom for Tom Carroll in the central attacking midfield role and, in the wide positions, Nathan Redmond and Alex Pritchard, who may replace Jesse Lingard in the starting XI after impressing as a late substitute on Thursday.
The chief aim, though, for Gareth Southgate’s side must be to get more support to Kane, who cut an occasionally isolated figure against Portugal. He denies his team-mates look to him as England’s main man – “We have a lot of players in this squad that have done well this season for their clubs; I am just one of them” – but on the occasions he was able to find space on the ball against Portugal he proved his threat, with one fizzing effort from distance particularly troubling José Sá in the Portugal goal.
In the absence of the injured Saido Berahino, top scorer in qualifying, Kane’s goal threat becomes even more vital. Although Kane is confident this squad will not crumble under the pressure, five straight defeats at these finals is a worrying trend and one that needs to end. “We are not panicking,” said Kane. “We know what we have to do.”
