Harry Kane's most iconic Spurs moments ahead of possibly his last game
Harry Kane could play his last game for Spurs TODAY… but from a deflected free-kick at Villa, to THAT goal against Arsenal and those celebrations in Amsterdam, he’s already earned his spot in history
- Harry Kane may play his last-ever game for Tottenham on Sunday vs Leicester
- The England captain has told Tottenham he wants to leave the club this summer
- He has also opened up to Gary Neville about taking his game to the next level
- Sportsmail analyses his most iconic moments in a Tottenham shirt
As Tottenham take on Leicester on Sunday afternoon with slim hopes of securing a Europa League spot and salvaging, in part, what has been a bitterly disappointing season, Harry Kane will lace up his boots and throw on his customary Spurs shirt, perhaps for the last time.
His final home game may have already come and gone, as Tottenham once again relinquished a lead to lose 2-1 at home to Aston Villa in a damning defeat, and though Interim Head Coach Ryan Mason played down its significance, there was perhaps a sense of a last goodbye as Kane waved to the 10,000 fans during his end-of-season lap of honour.
Indeed, Kane has not left. The England captain still has three years remaining on his contract, and notoriously tough negotiator Daniel Levy will not let his prized asset leave on the cheap.
Harry Kane could well play his final match for Tottenham today, after 16 years at the club
But if Kane does depart – and even if it is to another Premier League club – he will do so as one of the greatest talents to have ever played for the club, one who has a plethora of awards and iconic moments to his name.
With that in mind, Sportsmail takes you through the legendary Tottenham forward’s most notable moments at the club…
Harry Kane scores his first Premier League goal
Kane scored his first Premier League goal in a 5-1 home win against Sunderland in 2014
Among the list of accomplishments, it’s certainly not Kane’s most impressive feat. But his first Premier League goal against Sunderland, all the way back in 2014 under the stewardship of a certain Tim Sherwood, was where it all began for the Englishman.
Kane had actually made his senior debut three years prior against Hearts in the Europa League. He wasn’t even on the bench as Tottenham’s first-team strolled to a 5-0 away win in the first leg, but he started in the return fixture. He even won a penalty. He missed.
In fact, prior to his breakthrough moment under Sherwood, Kane had undergone loan spells with Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester, with varying levels of success.
There was little to no anticipation Kane would become the player he is today, with Rafael van der Vaart recently recalling a story, in which Heurelho Gomes once said a then 18-year-old forward ‘couldn’t do a damn thing’ after partaking in a training session.
But with Sherwood handing Kane his first-ever Premier League start with six games of the 2013-14 season remaining, the striker took full advantage of the opportunity, scoring in a 5-1 win over Sunderland, before completing the season with three goals from four starts.
Sherwood was replaced by Mauricio Pochettino just six weeks later, but Kane had done enough to keep himself in the mix – and the rest is history.
The Aston Villa goal that changed everything
Substitute Kane scored a crucial late free-kick winner as Tottenham beat Aston Villa in 2014
With the arrival of Pochettino, Kane found himself behind Roberto Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor in the pecking order.
The Englishman was thriving in cup competitions, however, and he was seriously pushing for a starting role, with Pochettino under pressure having won just three of his first nine league games.
With Tottenham 1-0 down against Aston Villa after 58 minutes, Pochettino finally answered the calls of the pleading fans and replaced a faltering Adebayor with a hungry Kane, and he certainly didn’t disappoint.
After Nacer Chadli bagged the equaliser, Kane stepped up to the plate in the last minute, sending a deflected free-kick past Brad Guzan.
Pochettino later in 2017 insisted it was his favourite Kane goal to date, admitting it had probably saved his job at Tottenham.
Kane was instantly promoted into the starting line-up. And though he didn’t score in the following game – a 2-1 home defeat to Stoke – he finished with 21 league goals in 34 games, second only to Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero with 26.
Kane scores THAT goal against Arsenal
Perhaps Kane’s greatest-ever Tottenham goal is his stunning strike against Arsenal in 2016
Moving on to the following season, and Kane had well and truly established himself as Tottenham’s focal point in attack, while the the north London club were just at the start of a phenomenal journey under Pochettino.
Even then, Kane simply loved a north London derby. He is now the all-time top scorer in the fixture with 11 goals from 15 games, and there is no strike more memorable than his jaw-dropping effort at White Hart Lane in 2016.
With Tottenham sat second in the table, and playing earlier than leaders Leicester, they had the opportunity to momentarily move to the head of the table with victory over Arsenal.
Aaron Ramsey put the visitors ahead, but after a Toby Alderweireld equaliser, Kane moved the hosts into the lead, thanks to the most spectacular of strikes.
He collected a Dele Alli back heel, turned towards goal and exquisitely curled it past a helpless David Ospina into the far corner. Then came the famous celebration, as he ripped off the protective mask he had been wearing and flung himself towards the corner flag in jubilation.
Though the match ended 2-2, and though Kane has since scored an abundance of crucial goals against Arsenal, it’s that incredible strike that will always be remembered.
Kane claims the Premier League golden boot… twice!
Harry Kane won consecutive Golden Boots, in both the 2015-16 and 2016-17 campaigns
Tottenham ended up finishing third in the 2015-16 campaign, with Leicester taking the title and Arsenal placing second, after winning none of their last four matches, including a bitterly disappointing 5-1 final-day defeat to Newcastle.
However, any suggestion that Kane was a one-season wonder, an idea that jokingly went around after a slow start to the campaign, was put to bed as the Englishman claimed the Golden Boot.
In a quite brilliant season on a personal level, Kane finished with 25 goals from 38 appearances, marginally ahead of Aguero and Jamie Vardy, who both scored 24.
And to further quash any thought that Kane’s class was temporary, he backed it up by winning another Golden Boot the following season, in what was perhaps a more remarkable campaign.
Despite playing just 30 games, due to two serious injuries during the season, Kane scored an 29 goals. He was actually trailing Romelu Lukaku by two goals in the standings with two games remaining, but he scored four against Leicester and three against Hull to take the prize.
Pochettino challenged Kane to go on and score 30 the next season. And that he did, though Mohamed Salah took the Golden Boot with 32.
Of course, Kane could soon add another to his collection, currently sat level with Salah on 22 goals with one game remaining.
Shearer, Messi and Ronaldo move aside – it’s 2017!
Kane may not have won the Premier League Golden Boot in the 2016-17 or 2017-18 seasons, but 2017 was a truly astonishing year for the forward.
The numbers were just staggering, and resulted in breaking Alan Shearer’s 22-year record for the most goals scored in a calendar year.
Kane scored a whopping 39 goals in 36 games, which is three more than Shearer accomplished back in 1995, despite playing 42 matches.
Aged 24 at the time, Kane scored more goals than Bournemouth, West Brom, Swansea, Crystal Palace, Brighton and Huddersfield, while becoming the first player ever to score six Premier League hat-tricks in a calendar year, which was 50 per cent of all the trebles scored in England’s top tier that year.
But it wasn’t just domestically where Kane was shining. He finished with a total of 56 goals in 52 games for club and country in 2017, making him Europe’s top scorer – outperforming the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski, who all played more games than him that year.
Kane joins the Premier League 100 club
Kane was congratulated by his team-mates after scoring his 100th Premier League goal
It didn’t take long for Kane to reach another milestone in 2018, scoring his 100th Premier League goal in February.
Still just 24 years old, Kane settled his nerves having missed a penalty moments before, slotting past Loris Karius at the second attempt to seal a 2-2 draw against Liverpool at Anfield in the dying seconds of the match.
It came less than a month after Kane became Tottenham’s all-time leading scorer in the Premier League, having overtaken Teddy Sheringham (97) with two goals in a 4-0 home win against Everton.
In surpassing Sheringham and reaching the milestone, Kane became the first Tottenham player to score 100 Premier League goals.
And remarkably, he did it in just 137 games, with only Alan Shearer (124) needing fewer matches to reach the tally.
Kane is now seventh in the all-time Premier League scorer charts, having notched 165 goals in 244 games.
An injured Kane’s Ajax celebrations
An injured Kane joined the celebrations as Tottenham reached the Champions League final
It’s quite extraordinary to think that Tottenham’s finest achievement in the modern era came with Kane sat in the stands, injured.
But after a miraculous Lucas Moura hat-trick ensured Tottenham progressed to their first-ever Champions League final, Kane couldn’t help but join in with the celebrations, in what is certainly an iconic moment for the club.
Kane had suffered ankle ligament damage on April 9 as Tottenham sealed a 1-0 advantage in their Champions League quarter-final first leg against Manchester City.
A month later on May 8, Tottenham beat Ajax 3-2 away to secure one of the most dramatic European wins in history, and Kane showed no signs of what was a serious injury, sprinting onto the pitch and joining his team-mates.
Of course, having not played in nearly two months, Kane raced back to fitness and started in the Champions League final against Liverpool, but he was unable to perform to his usual standards, and Tottenham ended up losing 2-0.
Regardless, Kane’s sprint after the semi-final triumph – one that will not have pleased the physios one bit – showed just how much the accomplishment meant to him.
Kane races to 20 Champions League goals
Kane reached 20 Champions League goals in record time with a double against Olympiacos
The disappointment of the Champions League final defeat hit Tottenham hard, however, and by November Pochettino had been sacked, replaced by Jose Mourinho, who promised to elevate Kane’s game to the next level.
With no time to dwell on the defeat, Kane quickly reached his next landmark, by recording 20 Champions League goals in the fewest-ever games with his double against Olympiacos.
His goals were scored in just 24 games, breaking Alessandro Del Piero’s long-standing record of 20 goals in 26 games that he set all the way back in 1998.
Ruud van Nistelrooy was third on the list, needing 27 games, while Filippo Inzaghi (28) and Mario Gomez (32) completed the top five.
Of course, Kane’s record has since been broken by a certain Erling Haaland, who at the age of 20 reached the milestone having played just 14 games in the competition.
Nevertheless, it’s yet another example that Kane is among the elite of world football.
Kane scores his 200th Tottenham goal
Kane needed just 300 appearances to score a double-century of goals for Tottenham
Having scored his first senior goal for the club against Shamrock Rovers in 2011, Kane completed his double-century nine years later, in what was just his 300th game.
Tottenham were beaten 1-0 by Royal Antwerp in the previous Europa League game, but they bounced back against Ludogorets the following week, with Kane netting in a 3-1 win.
In doing so, Kane reached the landmark of 200 goals for Tottenham, becoming just the third player to do so for the club, after Bobby Smith and Jimmy Greaves.
Since then, Kane (220) has now surpassed Smith, who finished with 208 goals, and has just Greaves (266) in his sights.
Of course, with the surrounding speculation, he might just not get there. We’ll simply have to wait and see. But regardless, he will always be a Tottenham legend, whatever happens.
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