Tottenham Hotspur star Harry Kane has established himself as one of the world’s best strikers but he could have been playing for Italian minnows Livorno.
That is the shock revelation from Italy this morning in the wake of the Tottenham striker’s hat-trick for England in the 6-1 World Cup win over Panama.
According to former Italy, AC Milan and Livorno goalkeeper Marco Amelia, Tottenham hero Kane was close to a move to the now Serie B side back in 2013, as he told Mediaset.
Spurs were willing to offload Kane according to Amelia – who is close friends with Livorno president Aldo Spinelli – but the player was reluctant to leave England.
“In 2013, Harry Kane was very close to Livorno and Spinelli is still kicking himself now,” laughed Amelia on Mediaset on Sunday night following Kane’s England heroics.
“It was the player at the time, still very young, who decided he wanted to stay in England.”
At the time, Kane was in Tottenham’s reserves and had been sent out on various loan spells to Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester City.
The story seems unbelievable now but it adds credence to claims by former Tottenham boss Tim Sherwood that he was the man who kept Kane at the club.
It has become something of a running joke among football fans that Sherwood takes credit for Kane’s emergence with the pundit at pains to explain how he Tottenham were willing to let him leave over the years for the likes of Leeds United, as reported by the likes of NBC Sport.
“It’s great I resisted the temptation to get rid of him last January because perhaps he wouldn’t be the star he is for Tottenham,” Sherwood said in 2015.
“I would never have allowed him to be sold when I was there. If they had brought in somebody last January and his name ended in a ‘I’ or an ‘O’ the fans would have been very excited, but I’m not sure he would have given the same output as Harry Kane has given.”
So as annoying as it may be for Spurs fans to hear, it seems Sherwood was right all along.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
