Harry Kane insists he has gotten over his personal fears of England being eliminated from the 2022 World Cup, declaring himself in fighting form for the European Championship final and saying the team are on the “right path”.
The captain’s missed penalty late in the 2-1 quarter-final defeat to France in Qatar will always be a sore point for him, but since then he has become England’s record goalscorer with 63 goals in 91 games and enjoyed a productive debut season at Bayern Munich after joining from Tottenham last summer.
Kane admits he still thinks about how England finished last time out – “Yeah, it was awful, wasn’t it?” – but it’s not on his mind.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “In football you have ups and downs along the way. Of course, for me there were downs, but in two years I have overcome them for club and country and am looking forward to the next big competition.”
England lost the Euro 2020 final to Italy on penalties and travel to Germany on Monday as the bookmakers’ favourites to win their first major men’s trophy since 1966. “We were so close at the last Euros so we’re really motivated to get back,” Kane said. “It comes around the corner, we have the World Cup and now we’re back here again so we feel we’re on the right path but as we all know, these tournaments are really hard to win.”
“There’s a lot of things we have to do right and prepare correctly, and we also need a little bit of luck here and there, as all winners do. We have the mindset that we can achieve it, and we also know that there’s a lot of hard work ahead of us between now and the final in July.”
Gareth Southgate had a number of fitness issues within his squad and Kane was one of the players who threatened him. According to then-Bayern manager Thomas Tuchel, Kane had a “complete back block” and was in doubt for the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid. Kane was substituted in the 85th minute and missed Bayern’s final two Bundesliga games.
Kane came on as a 61st-minute substitute in England’s 3-0 friendly win over Bosnia-Herzegovina last Monday and started and played 64 minutes in Friday’s 1-0 loss to Iceland. Southgate included two reserve strikers in Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney in his team.
“I’m OK,” Kane said. “I was due to play 60 minutes against Iceland so in that sense it’s been a really good camp for me personally, I’ve had a good training week and I’ve played 30 minutes. [against Bosnia and Herzegovina]”After a few more days of training, 60 minutes. I feel really prepared and in good shape.”
Southgate had some tough decisions to make with his 26-man squad, the toughest of which was the decision to leave out Harry Maguire and Jack Grealish, with Maguire on medical advice that he was recovering from a calf injury and unlikely to feature until the last 16 at the earliest. There are 13 players in the squad with no major tournament experience, 12 of them with at least two appearances under their belts and seven, including Kane, with three or four appearances each.
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“I think we have more than enough experience,” Kane said, “especially a lot of guys who have played two or three tournaments, and there are always new guys coming up. The players deserve to be here, and we have more than enough of them. It’s really tough for the guys that didn’t make it. [Maguire] “Especially with the injury. I know how much England means to him. It’s sad to see them go but at the end of the day that’s what playing for England is all about. The manager has to make tough decisions.
“Everybody has earned the right to be here. That’s what we’re saying. Everybody brings something different to the team and it takes all 26 players to be successful. That’s the message: we’re in this together.”