The chairman of Harry Kane’s old club felt a bit embarrassed after saying he ‘wasn’t good enough’ for Tottenham.
Harry Kane’s amazing rise to winning the Ballon d’Or has brought back some surprising comments from a chairman who once doubted his Premier League future. Kane beat stars like Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal to win football’s top individual award at London’s Palladium on October 26. He’s the first English player to win it since Michael Owen in 2001.
At 33, Kane truly earned the honor after scoring 61 goals in 51 games for Bayern Munich last season, plus 12 more for England—including six at the World Cup. When he accepted the award, he gave a heartfelt speech thanking all the managers who helped him become one of the best strikers in the world.
Kane even mentioned Russell Slade, the Leyton Orient manager who coached him on loan in 2011 when he was just 17. Kane scored five goals in 18 games for the League One club, but former Orient chairman Barry Hearn wasn’t convinced Kane would make it big.
In fact, Harry Redknapp shared that Hearn once said Kane would “never be good enough” for Spurs, saying others like Andros Townsend and Steven Caulker were better at the time. Redknapp recalled, “He said, ‘Kane, no, he’ll never be good enough to play for Tottenham.’ Shows what he knew about football!”
Luckily, Redknapp ignored those doubts and gave Kane his Spurs debut in a Europa League qualifier a few months later. The rest, as they say, is history.
Kane isn’t just the first English player to win the Ballon d’Or in 25 years—he’s also unique among winners from the past 30 years because he hasn’t won a major international or club trophy. His main rivals, Mbappe and Yamal, have both won big international titles.
England came close with Kane at Euro 2020, but lost on penalties to Italy, and again at Euro 2024 when Spain beat them 2-1. Kane also faced heartbreak this summer when England lost to Argentina in the World Cup semi-finals. But none of that stopped him from winning the Ballon d’Or, proving that personal skill and hard work matter just as much as team trophies.