Another week, another landmark moment for Harry Kane. Life is like that right now for the England captain, who will become his country's all-time record appearance-maker when leading out the Three Lions against Croatia on Thursday.
It completes a remarkable fortnight for Kane, 33, after he won the men's Ballon d'Or for the first time and signed a new contract with Bayern Munich through to 2029. He is now one of the highest-paid players in Europe, at more than €30 million per year.
Surpassing Peter Shilton's 125-cap England record felt almost impossible for more than three decades, especially for an outfield player. Wayne Rooney reached 120, David Beckham 115, Steven Gerrard 114 and Ashley Cole 107, but Kane will go clear on his own with years still ahead of him.
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England's goal-scoring record appeared a similarly difficult climb. Sir Bobby Charlton's tally of 49 stood for 45 years before Rooney reached the half-century in 2015 and later ended on 53. Kane is on a remarkable 91 -- and counting.
He has captained England more often than any other player in history, leading England to back-to-back European Championship finals and a third-place finish at this summer's World Cup, the men's national team's best placing since their sole 1966 triumph.
The only thing missing is a major international trophy, something he willingly admits he would trade every individual accolade to have. But Kane's case for becoming England's greatest-ever player grows with each passing season.
After ending his 19-year association with Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, Kane joined Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich for €120 million in August 2023. In March of that year, Bayern appointed Thomas Tuchel as manager. Former sporting director Hasan Salihamidžić has publicly claimed the club decided on Kane as their top summer target around a month later having first considered him in late 2021.
"He took convincing, but don't forget Bayern Munich is a huge club with a big reputation," Tuchel, now Kane's manager with England, told ESPN. "The prospect of winning titles, the prospect of competing in the Champions League every year, quarterfinals, semifinals, finals in basically all competitions gave us a good hand.
"But still, it is a big step for the English captain to step out of the Premier League and then the language is not easy. So it was a big step out of his comfort zone for Harry.
"In the end, with hindsight, because we are all smarter, it seems to have brought out the very, very best in him. He adapted so quickly, he became such an influential figure in such a big club. Full credit to him and his family. He took convincing, but we felt from the start it was possible."
Kane has gone on to score 156 goals in 161 matches for Bayern, more than any other player in Europe's top-five leagues in that time.
It's been an improbable rise for a once-unspectacular youngster who bounced around on loan in his formative years and would go on to join the pantheon of legends.
'If you haven't heard of him, his name is Harry Kane'
Winning the Ballon d'Or at the London Palladium was a full-circle moment for a man born nine miles away in Leytonstone in July 1993. Growing up in nearby Chingford, Kane would kick a ball around the local park with his father Pat and brother Charlie, four years his elder.
Kane's first club was Ridgeway Rovers, joining around the age of six. Ridgeway, founded in 1979, have helped produce several players of Premier League pedigree including Andros Townsend and Dwight Gayle, but David Beckham was undoubtedly their most famous alumnus. Beckham's father, Ted, coached David's team.
Kane joined Arsenal at age seven but was released as a nine-year-old with former academy director Liam Brady later claiming he was "a bit chubby." The Gunners chose to retain Benik Afobe and Chuks Aneke instead.
Kane returned to Ridgeway before joining Spurs at the age of 11. Then-Ridgeway chairman Dave Bricknell was also a Tottenham scout at the time and, while on trial at Watford, Kane scored a hat trick against Spurs in a youth match and was offered a contract by Tottenham shortly afterward. Bricknell was succeeded as Ridgeway chairman in 2011 by Ian Marshall.
"My first day as chairman was where a young 17-year-old called Harry Kane turned up to do the presentation for about 200 kids, my own kids included," Marshall told ESPN. "He gave out the trophies.
"Charlie Daniels and Teddy Sheringham had done some of the previous presentations and there were a couple of parents, one woman in particular, who said 'I've never heard of Harry Kane.' He'd just signed pro terms with Tottenham. I said: 'He played here and he's showing a pathway to your kid and all the others here.'
"At the end of the presentation, I was thanking Harry for coming along and I said: 'If you haven't heard of him, his name is Harry Kane.' I should have dropped the mic then."
'Not one manager said he'd be a player'
Still a lifetime away from the red carpet and glamour of London's West End, a teenage Kane began honing his finishing skills at Tottenham's old training ground across the city on the edge of Essex's Epping Forest. He sought out Spurs coach Clive Allen, a goal-scoring legend in his own right after prolific periods for Queens Park Rangers and Tottenham among several clubs, for extra sessions at the end of training.
"It was always a competition and involved different types of finishing," Allen told ESPN. "He had an unbelievable appetite for doing those sessions and improving himself, as he's shown throughout his career. Being consistent, hitting the target, all the things you preach as coach, he took everything on board.
"He was clean in the way he struck the ball. You see in some players, they'll attempt to strike the ball into the corner but technically they are not clean, they have to work at it. He had it. He quickly worked out angles, where to shoot.
"The goal doesn't move, and he had a great awareness in positions in the box. He knew where the corners were and he didn't have to look. Through repetition, you get into positions where you know where the goal is. We always used to say the ball moves but the goal doesn't, so the ball is the thing you have to concentrate on. He took it on board very, very quickly."
Until Kane turned 17, Allen made sure he won those sessions. "After that, I had to cheat or end it early to make sure I won," says Allen, who managed to keep one Tottenham record from Kane's grasp -- 49 goals in a single season, 1986-87.
He adds: "I was as competitive as he is. But eventually he got to the stage where he would beat me and I had no choice but to concede defeat."
While Kane's desire to improve was obvious, the heights he could hit were not. Kane signed his first professional contract in July 2010 but Spurs, managed by Harry Redknapp, had England internationals Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch in attack, supported by Roman Pavlyuchenko and attacking midfielder Rafael van der Vaart, an exciting late addition that summer.
Sources have told ESPN that then Leyton Orient boss Russell Slade and coach Kevin Nugent were frequent visitors to Spurs' training ground -- given its close proximity -- in their search for young players to try to tempt into a move. The pair developed a relationship with Spurs technical coordinator Tim Sherwood, who believed Kane would benefit from a loan spell at the League One club.
Five goals in 18 league matches with Orient preceded nine goals in 27 games for Championship side Millwall. A period at Norwich City, yielding no goals from five games, was cut short by Tottenham's decision to recall him before two goals in 15 games on loan at Leicester City completed the 2012-13 season.
"Every manager I loaned him to, not one of them said he'd be a player," Sherwood said in September.
Turbulence at Tottenham followed. Redknapp had been sacked a year earlier only for his successor, André Villas-Boas, to last 18 months before Sherwood was promoted in December 2013. With Spurs' record signing Roberto Soldado struggling, Kane was given his first Premier League start in April 2014 at Sunderland.
"I gave him [Soldado] as much time as I could," Sherwood told the "Undr the Cosh" podcast last month. "He trained brilliantly, he's a great lad. He worked hard in the game, but it wasn't happening for him.
"So in the end I just said to Harry, 'You're going to play tomorrow, son.' He looked at me as if to say 'about f---ing time.'"
Kane scored in the 59th minute against Sunderland, starting a streak of scoring goals in three consecutive games.
But it was the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino in the summer of 2014 that kick-started Kane's career. He was named PFA Young Player of the Year in the 2014-15 season after 21 goals in 34 games and a star was born. He went on to score 280 goals in 435 appearances as Tottenham broke into the top four and reached the 2019 UEFA Champions League final, losing 2-0 to Liverpool. Kane's partnership with Son Heung-Min remains the most prolific in Premier League history, combining for 47 goals.
"When you look at the history of the Premier League and all the incredible players who have played in it, to have a record like this with Harry is something really special," Son told ESPN. "But I think what makes it even more special is the relationship we built over so many years. We had a lot of trust in each other and understood each other's game so well, and I think you could see that on the pitch.
"Playing with someone like Harry makes you a better player because you are always learning from him. His understanding of the game, his movement, his passing, his finishing -- everything is at such a high level. We always pushed each other to improve, and I think we brought the best out of each other."
On becoming close friends with Kane, Son added: "We lived close to each other, sometimes came to training together, and spent a lot of time talking about football.
"We would talk about situations in games and how we could help each other. That understanding didn't happen overnight. We worked hard to build it, and I think becoming such good friends off the pitch made a big difference."
'He's a very serious footballer'
England recognition followed. Roy Hodgson gave Kane his senior England debut in March 2015 against Lithuania. He replaced Rooney -- a moment that felt at the time like something akin to passing the baton -- and, as was by now a theme, Kane scored, this time just 79 seconds after coming on and with only his third touch.
"We were never blessed with an enormous amount of center forwards at that time," Hodgson told ESPN. "The one who would have been the biggest, nailed-on candidate was Danny Welbeck, but he was very often injured and not available to be selected for us. So it was good we found Harry.
"He's a very serious footballer; his behavior is first class. He was relatively quiet, not someone who was constantly in your eyeline outside of the actual training sessions we did.
"Everyone seemed to be comfortable with him. He had his close friends with him from Pochettino's team, in [Eric] Dier and [Dele] Alli. They were a group and I think maybe there was some sort of jealousy about them from the older members of the team which one was vaguely aware of. It didn't cause any particular problems for us, the coaching staff, but you could feel they were regarded as the newcomers, the ones really making a dent on the established order."
His first senior tournament came at Euro 2016, where England were humiliated in a round-of-16 elimination by Iceland.
"I have to be careful what I say because it was a long time ago, it wasn't a successful tournament and I don't want to be one of those people, now that he's had an enormous recognition of his talent, who says 'I was a part of it, I knew all about that, I saw that coming,' because it is 10 years ago," Hodgson said. "He was part of a group of players I was dealing with, he was one of the newer ones and if I was to go back to that time, it was more the Rooneys and the [Steven] Gerrards who one was most conscious of.
"That tournament was a failure that could be distributed quite widely amongst players and certainly staff. There's no getting away from it. But it would be interesting to know what he thought of that.
"If I ever sat down with him for any length of time -- which I'd like to happen -- it would be interesting to say 'what about that tournament?' 'What about what was going on in your head and the other players' heads?' 'How did you find the environment?'
"We were placing quite a lot of responsibility on him. We were making it clear to everybody that we the coaching staff believes in him and he could be the one that could pull us through. How did that responsibility weigh [on him]?"
Hodgson departed his role that summer, Sam Allardyce lasted one game and then Gareth Southgate took charge. The pair worked together at under-21 level, and within 18 months, Southgate made Kane the new England captain prior to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where the striker would win the Golden Boot as the team exceeded all expectations by reaching the semifinals.
Southgate masterminded a period of sustained progress, reaching back-to-back Euros finals. Those came either side of a quarterfinal exit at the 2022 World Cup to France, where Kane missed a late penalty which could have forced extra time.
"He's become a very vital cog and if you like, the personification of what someone who is picked to play for his country, is important for his country and wants to play for his country," Hodgson said. "That's all part and parcel of the man's character. All the very nice things that are being written about Harry are fully deserved because it is not pure God's talent that he's got.
"He's added so much more to it and he's shown that if you want to be a success in football -- but it goes for any other walk of life -- you've got to have that passion, that dedication, that work ethic and that humility. And the ability to deal with setbacks."
Southgate's decision to step down in 2024 led England's Football Association to appoint Tuchel. His first port of call after taking the job was to visit Kane.
"At this moment I still lived in Munich and Harry lived in Munich, so I just had to drive 15 minutes and visit him," Tuchel told ESPN. "He was quite happy, I think. At least he gave me the impression he was quite happy that someone takes over that he knows. He knew my values, what I want from him and what I would demand from him.
"It was the same for me. I was happy the captain was already on board and I knew him, I knew how to use him and how influential and what a key player he can be. It was nice for both of us. My first meeting as an England coach was at his house."
Model pro
It was noticeable that Kane thanked a Spanish physio in his Ballon d'Or speech. He is the fourth-oldest first-time recipient of the award, and the honor comes around seven years after there were questions over how long his career at the highest level might last.
Ankle and hamstring injuries restricted his availability throughout 2018, 2019 and 2020. After another fitness issue at Southampton in January 2020, Kane reached out to Dr. Alejandro Elorriaga Claraco. The Canada-based expert began flying in once a month for acupuncture sessions, designed to relieve tensions and restore muscle firing patterns.
Kane is widely regarded as a model professional away from the game, first employing nutritionist Dan Sargeant more than a decade ago. Targeted cryotherapy is a staple of Kane's recovery routine, while he has reportedly had a £10,000 infrared sauna fitted at his Bavarian home.
He has not forgotten his roots. Kane sponsored Orient's shirts for the 2020-21 season to give the club vital financial support during a difficult period. In a deal reportedly worth £100,000, the club's shirts carried three different logos, one recognizing the country's key workers responding to COVID-19 with the message "Thank You Frontline Heroes" and two bearing the names of other favored causes: Haven House Children's Hospice and the mental health charity, Mind.
"He's recently donated another shirt that we'll probably end up raffling to make some more money for Ridgeway Rovers," Marshall said. "How many grassroots clubs around the world can say they've helped the journey of a Ballon d'Or winner? To the extent that next season, we may change our badge. We've designed a badge with a Ballon d'Or theme circled around a No. 9 with a ball in the bottom."
Bayern and beyond
There is little doubt Kane's move to Bayern has taken his game to another level. He told reporters after Bayern's 2-2 draw with Arsenal last month: "I feel like I'm seeing pictures on the pitch as good as ever."
Kane has often dropped deep during matches throughout his career -- and sometimes played as a midfielder in his youth -- but mastery of timing those positional alterations combined with a stunning passing range have made him an all-around threat.
"He makes even more of his ability as he gets older because he drops deeper and uses his amazing ability to see passes and seems to find those passes," says Hodgson. "Luckily, it hasn't impacted on him doing what he's always been good at in and around the box, which is finding that half a yard to shoot and then shooting as well as he does.
"At the moment, you have to see him very much as a complete player as a No. 9 because he gives you everything you would want your center forward to give you, backed up by his personality and his character."
If time doesn't slow him, perhaps it will be walking away from the game that stops Kane extending his records. He told ESPN in 2019 of his desire to try out as an NFL kicker, something that draws another parallel with Clive Allen's career. Allen went abroad -- to Bordeaux -- and later, in 1997, became a place-kicker for NFL Europe side London Monarchs.
"I've had a couple of people speak to me about it who have spoken to his representatives," Allen said. "I think he has an idea that he'd like to try it. I'd love to help him with that because it is a completely different technique and skill. But he's got the mindset to be a success."
That mindset has taken him further than anyone ever thought possible. Winning silverware with England is the final frontier. Euro 2028 and a home tournament offers a great chance. One thing is certain: Kane will do everything possible to take it.
ESPN's Cesar Hernandez contributed to this report.
