FFT were at Wembley to see the striker lead England into the final of Euro 2020 - now he wants his first ever trophy
(Image credit: PA Images)
A couple of months before the start of Euro 2020, Sir Geoff Hurst kindly spared some time to speak to FourFourTwo. Understandably, there was one person we particularly wanted to ask him about.
Wembley was preparing to host a final of a major tournament, 55 years after Hurst had scored a famous hat-trick at the same venue, to win the World Cup for England. The man leading the line for the Three Lions this summer, attempting to follow in his footsteps, would be Harry Kane.
We wanted to know if Sir Geoff believed Kane capable of replicating his own feats from 1966, and fire England to a major trophy. The 79-year-old responded without a second's hesitation. "He can," Hurst said. "Harry has been outstanding for Tottenham and for England. It's going to be extremely hard, though: history has told us that for 55 years, nobody has scored a hat-trick in a major final..."
The last sentence was delivered with a smile. The biggest moment of Kane's career has arrived, and no one will seriously be expecting him to score a hat-trick, as sensational as that would be.
But England will look to Kane on Sunday for the goal that might deliver victory in only their second ever major final. Sir Geoff has always believed him capable of such a defining goal, and there will be few who will contradict that assessment now.
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The Tottenham forward previously won that award at the World Cup in 2018 - only Gerd Muller has ever won took the honour outright at consecutive tournaments, in 1970 and 1972.
Kane's winner against Denmark was his fourth goal of this tournament, putting him just one behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Patrik Schick - although the reality is he'll need to either score twice in the final to bag the award, or score once and provide two assists. Players tied on goals are separated by assists, then minutes played - Ronaldo has one assist, and played fewer minutes than Kane.
Given that Italy have never conceded more than one goal in a game during this tournament so far, it looks a tall order. If Kane were to somehow achieve it though, he would become a sort of reverse Oleg Salenko - the Russian international won the golden boot at the 1994 World Cup despite scoring all of his goals in the group stage, a round in which Kane didn't bag a single goal this time around.
(Image credit: PA Images)
It was different for the England star in 2018 - back then, five of his six goals came in the group stage, the other from the spot against Colombia.
After finding the net six times in his first three appearances at the tournament - he was rested against Belgium - you wondered just how many he was going to go on to score. The answer was still six - his form faded as the World Cup went on, his movement seemingly restricted by an injury he'd picked up mid-tournament. When it came to the key game against Croatia, Kane couldn't find the net, and England lost.
This time, it has been the opposite way around. He looked out of sorts in the group stage, struggling to get himself into the game, let alone score. Thankfully, England still had enough quality to ease through without his goals, but he didn't escape criticism. Some said he should change his style of play, some claimed he should be dropped altogether, a startling suggestion given his scoring record for club and country.
The Three Lions needed Kane in the knockout stages if they were to progress far in this tournament, and Kane has delivered. His goal against Germany and his brace against Ukraine all came from being in the right place at the right time, a very useful quality for a striker to have. On each occasion, the finish was clinical.
Man of the match
Against Denmark, his goal required a certain amount of luck - his penalty was surprisingly weak, only for the ball to rebound back to him off Kasper Schmeichel - but his overall display was his best of the tournament so far.
Kane was given the official man of the match award, having also provided the smart pass that played in Bukayo Saka, the move that delivered England's equaliser. He was a constant threat when dropping deep to pick up the ball and look for others.
His Euros have followed the trajectory of Gary Lineker at the 1986 World Cup - Lineker too was goalless at the start of the tournament before bursting into life, albeit without helping England to a final.
Kane has now equalled Lineker's record of 10 goals at major tournaments for England. He's officially the Three Lions' joint best tournament striker of all time, better than Alan Shearer, Wayne Rooney, and even Hurst himself.
(Image credit: PA Images)
Kane won't just be looking to emulate Hurst on Sunday - he'll also be looking to emulate Bobby Moore, the only captain to lift a major trophy for England. As goalscorer and skipper, Kane's role with England is to be Hurst and Moore all rolled into one. It's some responsibility.
The striker is certainly not a naturally vociferous leader - his style is not that of Terry Butcher, or John Terry. But neither was Moore's. "He wasn't a ranter or a raver," Hurst once said of his former England and West Ham skipper.
Kane has found his voice as the years have gone on, but largely he does what Moore always did - he leads by example, with a manner of calm assurance. It's proved effective - there can be absolutely no doubt that everyone in the current England squad respects him hugely, both for his ability as a player, but also for his character as a man.
Yet despite it all, he's still never won a single trophy in his career, denied so often at club level with Tottenham that he recently asked to leave the North London club. Few players have had a career that merits a trophy more than Kane, and he's still only 27.
(Image credit: PA Images)
On Sunday, he has the chance to win one of the biggest trophies of all. One he can share with a whole country, as captain, and maybe even as matchwinner.
Kane may be facing Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci in the final - no easy task - but he's scored 38 goals in 60 England games now. Italy don't have a striker with those sorts of statistics. Ciro Immobile is clearly a danger, but has a less prolific 15 goals in 51 matches for the Azzurri.
One suspects that Kane would swap almost all of those 38 previous goals for the winner at Wembley on Sunday.
Sir Geoff Hurst backs him to do it. If he does, maybe it will be arise Sir Harry, too. Kane's shot at immortality is just three days away.
Chris joined FourFourTwo in 2015 and has reported from more than 20 countries, in places as varied as Ivory Coast and the Arctic Circle. He's interviewed Pele, Zlatan and Santa Claus (it's a long story), as well as covering the World Cup, AFCON and the Clasico. He previously spent 10 years as a newspaper journalist, and completed the 92 in 2017.
