Harry Kane has been included in the 30-man shortlist for the 2017 Ballon d’Or.
The 24-year-old is the only English player to be named thanks to his incredible tally of 43 goals in 37 games – including six hat-tricks - for club and country this calendar year.
Amongst his many achievements, his most recent Golden Boot stands out. Despite having missed a total of three months across last season because of a recurring ankle injury, the Tottenham striker surged past Romelu Lukaku in May to take the accolade for the second year in a row.
Even prior to his nomination, Kane has been a huge talking point in recent weeks. Following his annual August goal drought, he burst into action in September with eleven goals, tearing apart the defences of Everton, Borussia Dortmund, West Ham, and APOEL Nicosia without mercy.
The Ballon d’Or has its critics. You have to go back to 2007 to find a winner outside the exclusive club of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, with Bayern Munich legend Philipp Lahm calling it out as a “popularity contest for strikers”. Even if that’s true, Kane, arguably the most in-form striker in Europe, is unlikely to rank in the very top places.
What matters is that he is now being mentioned in the same breath as Messi and Ronaldo. Mauricio Pochettino’s recent comments comparing him to the latter were taken out of context slightly; the headlines ran that the Spurs boss thought the England international was better than Ronaldo, when he in fact suggested he might prefer to have him in his team because he’s significantly younger than the Portuguese.
If the Ballon d’Or is indeed unattainable for the majority of players shortlisted, then it’s primarily about recognition. With every passing week, the debate surrounding Kane’s world-class status seems to become increasingly one-sided.
Not only do his goals speak for themselves, there can be no lingering doubts about his all-round play anymore. The myth that he inflates his stats with penalties has been dispelled. Only four of his 43 goals this year have come from the spot, his most recent, of course, coming in England’s win over Lithuania on Sunday. Kane holds the ball up superbly and his passes and first touches are getting crisper, while he’s also scoring increasingly with his head.
As he moves away from being categorised as a young player, he’s all set to bring home further awards. The permanent England captaincy should be just around the corner too, with Jordan Henderson the only other real option for Gareth Southgate.
Next summer is a big one, for obvious reasons. Scoring in the Premier League is one thing, the Champions League another. The World Cup has the potential to take Kane to new levels. That said, even some of the greats have not been able to take their nations particularly far in the tournament. A decent measure would be how he fares individually given that England are not expected to set Russia 2018 alight.
Regardless, if the Ballon d’Or is a judgement on ability and not on players’ trophy cabinets, Kane thoroughly deserves to be in there.
Will Ronaldo match Messi’s five titles? Perhaps. Of the 15 players named so far, Kane weighs up very well against a number of them. He has outclassed the likes of De Bruyne and Coutinho in English football, while the likes of Dries Mertens and Edin Dzeko are going to struggle to rank highly amid doubts about the depth of Serie A. This is never going to be about winning the thing, but it is about what Kane loves to do more than anything: pitting himself against the very best in the world.
List of nominees released so far: Neymar, Luis Suarez, Sergio Ramos, Kevin de Bruyne, N’Golo Kante, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Jan Oblak, Dries Mertens, Marcelo, Robert Lewandowski, Edin Dzeko, Paulo Dybala, David de Gea, Philippe Coutinho
