Ahead of his first World Cup, Harry Kane picks out his memories of competitions past

Saturday 02 Jun 2018
England captain Harry Kane's only previous World Cup experience was at the U20 version in 2013

The first World Cup that I remember is 2002 and we had an amazing team that year.

The Brazil game sticks out. We went 1-0 up but Brazil managed to turn it around.

Harry Kane
  • Born: Walthamstow, 28 July 1993
  • Club: Tottenham Hotspur
  • Caps: U17, U19, U20, U21, Senior
  • Twitter: @HKane
  • Instagram: @harrykane

Because of the time difference in Japan, we got to watch it in the assembly hall at school. It wasn’t a great day afterwards!

In 2006, I watched the Portugal game in the Sirloin pub in Chingford with my family. There were a few tears at the end of that game!

But David Beckham’s penalty against Argentina in 2002 is a definite highlight.

My Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino was obviously the player who gave away the penalty so we have a bit of banter about it every now and then.

I was a big Beckham fan growing up, obviously it's well known that he's from the same area and we went to the same school. To see the passion in his eyes after he scored that penalty is something that sticks out.

The World Cup is something I want to look back on in the future and say that I enjoyed. I don’t want to let it pass me by so I’ll do everything I can to make sure I enjoy the experience.

See Harry Kane's England player profile.

You could see Kane and his Three Lions team-mates in action against Costa Rica at Elland Road on Thursday 7 June with tickets still on sale.

World Cup memories:-

Phil Jones
Danny Rose
Harry Maguire
Nick Pope

By Harry Kane England captain