As a youngster at Tottenham Harry Kane was ‘a little bit overweight’ and ‘didn’t stand out’ before going on to become England’s greatest ever striker.
That is the opinion of Kyle Walker, who played with Kane at Spurs and for many years at international level as well.
Kane did not exactly burst onto the scene as a youngster, taking some time to make an impact at Tottenham after unspectacular loan spells at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester.
The 32-year-old made his debut in 2011 and scored his first Spurs goal in December that year in the Europa League, but did not net in the Premier League until April 2014.
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Then he got going, scoring 31 goals in the 2014/15 season and has proved very difficult to stop since then, now a Bayern Munich player with 146 goals in 147 games for the German giants.
He will captain England in their World Cup opener against Croatia on Wednesday night, having scored 79 goals in 114 caps.
That seemed very unlikely to Walker when he arrived at Spurs from Sheffield United in 2009, who did not see that kind of potential in a teenage Kane.
‘I’m not sure people really realise how much he has had to graft to get to be one of the best strikers in the world,’ Walker wrote in The Sun.
‘I signed for Spurs at 19 and did a couple of training sessions with Harry’s age group which included the likes of Andros Townsend, Steven Caulker, Ryan Mason and Tom Carroll.
‘It was a good group but Harry was a little bit overweight and didn’t stand out. He would be honest with himself about that.
‘Harry went out on loan and I wouldn’t even say he came back as a better player because he was sent out on loan again and again at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester where he sat on the bench and didn’t really play that much.’
Walker explained that relentless hard work on the training pitch, especially on finishing, has taken Kane to the top, when he didn’t necessarily have obvious natural assets.
‘He’s always been obsessive in training, staying behind to practice his shooting and work on his finishing,’ said the former England full-back.
‘I’m not speaking out of turn because H is a good friend, but he’s not the quickest. And he really had to sharpen up on the tools when he was around the box, he had to be clinical.’
Kane arrives at this World Cup just shy of his 33rd birthday, but having scored 61 goals last season in 51 games for Bayern.
There is pressure on him to produce if England are to have a chance of success, but he says he is absolutely fine with that.
‘I’m coming into this tournament in the best way possible; the best place physically and mentally,’ Kane said. ‘Throughout a career, there aren’t loads of times when all the pieces of the puzzle will come together at the right moment. Talking now, I feel like I’m in that place.
‘With every tournament, I always feel under pressure being the goal-scorer … people expect you to score and help the team and I guess this year is no different. But I’m comfortable having that responsibility. I’m probably even more comfortable going into this year because of the way the season was for me.’