Harry Kane has won the Ballon d'Or, becoming the first English player to take the award in 25 years and only the fifth in its history. The Bayern Munich and England captain is 33, and was crowned 15 years after his senior debut on loan at Leyton Orient in League One.
Michael Owen was the previous English winner, in 2001, aged 22 and four years after his Liverpool debut. Kane's route ran through loan spells at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester before a first Premier League start at 20.
Kane Ballon d'Or win ends a 25-year English wait
Kane addressed the gap between those two careers himself in his acceptance speech. "My journey wasn't straightforward; I didn't go straight to the top, I had to experience a lot of loan moves and fight my way to get to where I am now," he said.
Tim Sherwood, the former Tottenham manager who gave Kane his full Premier League debut, framed the award the same way. "This is a Cinderella story we've never seen before," he told Sky Sports. "He keeps breaking records, and I keep thinking, 'Are we talking about the same kid?'"
Sherwood argues the loan spells were never failures. "We never felt like that because we felt that him playing in U21 football was a waste of time," he said. "They were really good loans, and those loans were the reason why we've got a player like that."
Tim Sherwood and the sliding doors at Tottenham
Kane was outside the first-team squad until Andre Villas-Boas was sacked and Sherwood took charge until the end of the 2013/14 season. Kane thanked him on stage while collecting the Ballon d'Or.
The opportunity came in April 2014, in a 5-1 home win over Sunderland, when the then-20-year-old started and scored the opener. "I suppose it's a sliding doors moment that I managed to take over until the end of the season and I managed to give him a stage where he could perform," Sherwood said.
Bayern Munich move and the records behind the award
Kane left Tottenham for Bayern in a £100m move in the summer of 2023. Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports the transfer was the precondition for the prize. "It's a move he needed to make," he said. "There's no way Harry Kane could've won the Ballon d'Or if he was playing for Tottenham."
In Germany he has won back-to-back Bundesliga titles and a German Cup. He is the fastest player to reach 100 Bundesliga goals, holds the record for most goals in a first 100 Bundesliga appearances, and was quickest to 100 Bundesliga goal contributions.
Last season he scored 73 goals in all competitions, 61 of them for Bayern — 19 more than any other player in Europe's big-five leagues, and the most by any player in a season since Cristiano Ronaldo's 61 for Real Madrid in 2014/15.
The career ledger now reads nearly 550 goals for club and country. He is Tottenham's record scorer, England's all-time scorer, England's leading World Cup scorer and the top English scorer in Champions League history, with three Premier League Golden Boots and the 2020/21 Premier League Playmaker of the Season award.
Is Kane England's greatest ever player?
His passing range is part of the case. In Bayern's recent 2-2 Champions League home draw with Arsenal, Kane spent much of the game dropping deep and set up Alphonso Davies' equaliser with a ball from inside the centre circle.
Carragher still ranks another English Ballon d'Or winner ahead of him. "I would still always put Bobby Charlton as the greatest England player ever," he said. "He's won the World Cup. He's won the Champions League with Manchester United... Harry Kane and the others still haven't got their hands on a trophy, and that's what Bobby Charlton did."
What comes next for Kane
Kane needs one cap to become England's most-capped player. Sherwood believes a return to England is on the longer-term agenda, with Alan Shearer's Premier League record of 260 goals in view; Kane sits 47 behind.
Sherwood's shortlist is conditional. He names Liverpool as a possible destination, Tottenham if they start progressing, and Manchester United with "a long way to go", while ruling out Chelsea and Arsenal because of the Tottenham connection and noting Manchester City's "troubles".
Bayern's next fixture, per Sky Sports, is against Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.
The original report is from skysports.com.
