For years now, Harry Kane has periodically said he wants to become an American football player. At first it sounded like half a joke. Then he kept bringing it up. And he still does, whenever he’s asked. In his latest interview on the subject, the Bayern and England striker added another detail that makes the idea seem a little more real: Kane can already picture himself in the US, even playing in MLS and the NFL at the same time.
Kane is a golfer, too, having joined Wentworth, the private club on the outskirts of London where he is said to have an excellent record. But, as he told reporters at the England camp, “thinking about a future in the NFL is much more realistic than golf”. It’s easy to see why: “I’m a penalty taker. The pressure and the technique are very similar to what you see from football kickers. If I trained for that role, I’d already feel more comfortable with it than I would in other sports. But when you watch games on TV, everything looks easy. You think you could pick it up quickly, but it doesn’t always work like that. If I did it, I’d take it very seriously. I’d give myself six months to a year to train and become competitive.”
Kane has even started thinking about how he might make it work: “If I were to play in MLS or a similar league in the future, there could be a way to combine that with playing in the NFL. It all depends on what happens with my career over the next five or six years, how motivated I am and what I want to do. But it’s just an idea I have in my head. Right now, I still feel like I want to play football for as long as possible.” Bayern and England fans, then, can stay reasonably calm. For NFL fans, it’s a case of waiting.