Gareth Southgate raised the hopes of a nation with the performances at their last two tournaments, and even with recent form denting optimism, Harry Kane & Co tell FFT that they are still targeting glory in Qatar
Words Chris Flanagan Additional reporting Andy Mitten
Harry Kane remembers the day he won the World Cup Golden Boot with mixed emotions. It will forever be one of his proudest possessions, but there’s a tinge of regret in where he was when he won it.
That day, Kane had dreamed of being inside Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, playing in the World Cup final. Instead, he was nearly 2,000 miles further west. “Winning the Golden Boot was incredible but it was a strange feeling, because we’d gone out of the tournament and were so disappointed about that,” he explains to FourFourTwo.
“We had just landed back in England when the World Cup final was on. I wasn’t watching it – I was driving back to London from Birmingham. I started getting texts through that said, ‘Congratulations, you’ve won the Golden Boot’.”
Kane’s six goals in six games had put him well clear at the top of the 2018 World Cup’s scoring charts. Either Antoine Griezmann or Kylian Mbappe needed a hat-trick in the final to deny him a sole claim to the award. Each scored only once, and the Golden Boot was his – just the second time an Englishman had ever won it, after Gary Lineker in 1986.
“It was a proud moment,” says Kane. “The exciting thing is that I know I could have scored more. Scoring six goals was great, but I could have had more. There’s motivation to try to go even further this time.”
Not just on a personal level, either. For all of the plaudits that Kane and England received for reaching the semi-finals in 2018, and then progressing to their first major final in 55 years at the European Championship, defeat was hugely painful on both occasions.
“The Euros final hurt, for sure – it’s still something I think about now,” admits Kane. “It was tough. We got off to an amazing start with Luke Shaw’s early goal, there was an incredible atmosphere, and during the game we never really felt in too much trouble. Then Italy scored from a set-piece and it was a back-and-forth game after that. There wasn’t much in it.
“Yet another penalty shootout was just a heartbreaking way for it to all end for us, but as a team it left a real hunger and determination to go that one step further – to try to win the World Cup. We know it’s not as easy as just turning up and doing that – a lot of hard work will have to go into it – but that Euros final left a sour
