Harry Kane’s Ballon d’Or Triumph Rewards a Superstar of Quiet Excellence

It was July 10, 2024, a few hours after Harry Kane and Ollie Watkins had sent England past the Netherlands in Dortmund and into the Euro 2024 final. At the Dorint Hotel, across a dual carriageway from the Westfalenstadion, a group of supporters — several wearing England shirts — had gathered in the lobby bar.

They spotted two of us sitting alone at another table and invited us to join them. The group included Kane’s wife, Katie Goodland, along with her sister and parents. They spoke about Kane’s life in Munich, their own lives in Essex, and their favourite pubs and restaurants. They also touched on some of the criticism directed at Kane, but there was no bitterness. They were warm, engaging people, and it proved to be two hours very well spent.

I thought about them when I finally saw Dear England, James Graham’s play, which earned widespread praise for presenting Gareth Southgate as football’s answer to Jesus Christ. Yet its portrayal of Kane as a dim-witted bore was so crude and clumsy that it damaged the production.

I thought about them when Kane was criticised for leaving Tottenham for Bayern Munich, then failing to win the Bundesliga in his first season in Germany. I thought about them when people joked that he would never lift a trophy.

I thought about them again a few weeks ago when I read that Lamine Yamal had dismissed Kane’s hopes of winning the Ballon d’Or, football’s most prestigious individual award. Yamal’s comments also fed into the celebrity culture surrounding the modern game, with the teenager saying the contest should be between himself and Kylian Mbappe.

“I honestly believe there are two of us who are the best in the world, and this year I’d deserve it because of what I’ve won,” Yamal said in an interview clip shared by Spanish streaming platform Movistar. “As far as I’m concerned, Mbappe and I are the two best in the world. It’s clear to me, and everyone who watches the matches knows it.”

But most of all, I thought about them late on Monday night, as I sat in the audience at the London Palladium in the heart of the West End and watched Kane walk on stage to collect the prize ahead of both Yamal and Mbappe. In doing so, he became the first Englishman in 25 years to be named the best footballer in the world.

It was Kane’s moment of vindication. It validated the way he has conducted himself throughout a career that began with him fighting for opportunities during loan spells at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City, before eventually establishing himself in the Tottenham first team.

“My journey has not been a straightforward one,” Kane told an audience of cheering children and jubilant supporters. “For any young boy wanting to achieve their dreams, and hoping to learn through resilience, determination and self-belief, I hope this can give you inspiration.”

It was a perfectly judged speech, blending the emotion of his thanks to his parents and wife with a heartfelt tribute to Tottenham for “believing in me and my dreams”.

The occasion confirmed that Kane had been right to devote himself so completely to football. It showed that the years he spent serving as a positive example to young players and to the supporters who admired something in him had been worthwhile.

It also demonstrated that football can still reward men like Kane: players who have not chased the spotlight, courted controversy, abused their fame or, as Yamal is alleged to have done, hired performers with dwarfism for an 18th birthday party. Kane has instead committed himself to a career built on quiet excellence.

It was also recognition that scoring an extraordinary 61 goals for Bayern in a single season, taking England to the brink of a World Cup final and extending his remarkable international record all matter. Kane now has 91 goals in 125 appearances for his country.

This is not a victory for the Premier League, given that Kane now plays in the Bundesliga. It is, however, a victory for English footballers. It raises further questions about Thomas Tuchel’s attempt to blame England’s World Cup exit on the supposedly poor technique of English players. In Kane and Jude Bellingham, England possess two footballers with Rolls-Royce technique.

And it is a win for English football because Kane is the ambassador for our game in the way Sir Bobby Charlton was the ambassador for our game. He is a player admired for more than just his football. He is admired for what he stands for on and off the pitch. He is a player who plays the game with respect and dignity as well as sublime skill.

‘The Ballon d’Or,’ its rules suggest, ‘is awarded based on three criteria, in order of importance: 1. Individual performances, decisive and impressive character. 2. Collective performances and titles won. 3. Class and fair play.’ Those criteria are rich justification for Kane’s win.

The truth is that for everything he has achieved, Kane has been underrated for much of his career. Because the truth is also that he is, alongside Jimmy Greaves, the greatest goalscorer England has ever produced but also a player who proves again and again that he is far more than a goalscorer.

Kane is the complete centre forward, a man who scores and scores and scores for Bayern, but whose passing ability and brilliant technique makes him stand out amid his competitors. He and Jude Bellingham drove England on and on at the World Cup in Mexico, Canada and the US last summer.

And now he is in rare company. He is the first Englishman to win the Ballon d’Or since Michael Owen in 2001. Only four of his compatriots, Sir Stanley Matthews (1956), Sir Bobby Charlton (1966), Kevin Keegan (1978 and 1979), and Owen, have been awarded the honour. Denis Law (1964) and George Best (1968), are the only other British players to have won.

Kane was warned when he left Spurs that the move would cost him his shot at immortality because it would end his chances of overhauling Alan Shearer’s mark of 260 goals that makes him the leading scorer in Premier League history.

Those warnings may have been right but think of what Kane has gained. Think of how much he has been rewarded for that move. Maybe the chance of the league record has gone but Kane’s name is now written in football history alongside Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and Zinedine Zidane.

Kane’s victory is a victory for a player who has done things the right way, a player who is not a raging narcissist like Ronaldo, a player who is understated and unassuming, a player who is the ultimate professional, who has done everything to maximise his talents and devote himself to the game and who is now reaping the rewards.

It is a victory for Spurs, it is a victory for English football, which created and nurtured him. And it is a victory for his family, whose pride in their husband, son, father and brother is something we can all share.