Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane is likely to captain England this World Cup, and with that further solidifying his status as the face of the national team. Yet he’s recently been the recipient of plenty of jibes and barbs from his own national football community. And now Kane has hit back, ripping the mentality of English fans who criticize their own players.
Shade has been getting thrown at Harry Kane for a few weeks already, and it essentially started with his claiming a goal away from teammate Christian Eriksen in a win versus Stoke City. Kane and Tottenham lobbied to have the goal credited to him, and the Football Association complied.
Kane took a lot of heat on that, from all corners of the English football community. Then the FA’s official Twitter account mocked Harry Kane during their FA Cup semifinal loss to Manchester United by joking that he was, as the saying goes, in Chris Smalling‘s back pocket. The tweet went viral, caused a bit of an uproar, and was since deleted.
“I talked to the gaffer (Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino) about it and all he was saying was, ‘Would other countries do that to their own players?’ Probably not,” said Kane.
“The FA tweet was a silly tweet, we all know that,” added Kane. “It is something that has gone, it was two weeks ago or whatever it was, I am over it.
“The gaffer said I was sad, I am focused. I am a guy who gets on with things.
“If it happens, it happens, I move on, I look forward, I look forward to the next game, that’s all I worry about, getting out on the pitch and doing my job.”
Kane also said that the issue could be a mentality with some England fans. He implied that it was a defense mechanism, a way to preemptively prepare for failure, having been used to so many early exits in recent tournaments.
“It is strange, I think it is a mentality thing,” Kane added.
“It is easier these days to maybe banter England players or take the mick out of England players, if we don’t do well in the World Cup it’s, ‘Oh we told you so’.”
“On social media you can get a few people that don’t see eye-to-eye but that is part of fans and opinions.”
“Everyone is passionate about their clubs and rightly so, but as a nation when it comes to the World Cup that is the most important thing, that’s what comes first.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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