‘I didn’t think too much about it’ – Tottenham star Kane insists he wasn’t fazed by Arsenal academy ‘rejection’

Dropped from Gunners’ academy aged nineNow a Spurs legendAiming for England World Cup glory

WHAT HAPPENED? Before he was the England captain and Tottenham’s second-highest all-time top goalscorer (behind only Jimmy Greaves), Kane was doing his best to make it at another club. And while he failed with that ambition, it seems as though the 29-year-old wasn’t particularly fazed by the rejection.

WHAT THEY SAID: The striker told England Football, “After playing at Ridgeway from the ages of 5 to six, I went to Arsenal for a couple of years from seven to nine before I was then released.

“When I look back on being released, I didn’t think too much about it. They let my parents know and I remember it as clear as day we were walking to the local park and my dad said: ‘Arsenal are letting you go but we are going to go back to Ridgeway and we will carry on doing what we are doing and working hard’.

“Obviously, I had friends at Arsenal so it was a little disappointing that I wouldn’t be able to play with them but for me at that age, no matter who I was playing for, I just wanted to play football. So whilst it was rejection, it was a case of on to the next thing, keep working hard, and seeing what happens.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Evidently Kane didn’t let this rejection get him down and eventually broke into the senior Spurs team and now has scored a whopping 261 goals in 409 games.

IN TWO PHOTOS:

DID YOU KNOW? The Tottenham ace has scored 14 times against Arsenal, while his seven penalty goals against the Gunners is the joint-most one player has scored against an opponent in the competition.

WHAT NEXT FOR KANE? Having overcome this disappointment, the forward will have to get over the pain of Euro 2020, which England lost in the final, as the Three Lions look to go one step further in Qatar at the World Cup.