Rafael van der Vaart recalls his first impressions of Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane in training
As quoted by the Mirror, former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rafael van der Vaart revealed that he thought Harry Kane was pretty bad in training when he was just coming through the youth ranks.
The Dutchman was at Spurs from 2010 to 2012 when Kane was taking his first steps with the senior team in training. And he recalled that he was surprised by the then 18-year-old’s lack of finesse and control of the ball.
“He was on the same pitch as us and joined in at training with the first-team squad. And when the ball was passed to him, every time I could not believe how he tried to control it. I swear, I said to my then team-mate Gomes, ‘He can’t kick a ****ing ball’.”
But the former Real Madrid midfielder now accepts that Kane is up there with the best of the best. He compared him with Robert Lewandowski of Bayern Munich and called him a ‘guarantee of goals for both England and Tottenham’.
No point in moving
Van der Vaart was enjoying his last few days at Spurs when Kane made his debut as a substitute against Newcastle United in a 2-1 defeat back in August 2012.
Kane now has 215 goals for the Spurs senior side and the former Holland international calls him the main man at Tottenham. And he has advised the 27-year-old to not leave Spurs, especially for Madrid, due to various reasons.
“I have seen British players move to Real Madrid and often they struggle to adapt or be successful. At Tottenham, he is the main man, he will keep scoring all the goals and financially there is no need to move for him. At Tottenham he is earning an absolute bomb, so no reason to leave.”
The striker’s future is up in the air and the recent Europa League elimination against Dinamo Zagreb would have undoubtedly added fuel to fire.
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But Spurs fans would hope that he stays at N17 and leads them to their first piece of silverware since 2008.