Tottenham star Harry Kane: Hype is the biggest challenge for young English players

Tom Doyle16 April 2016

Tottenham forward Harry Kane believes that the biggest challenge for young English players is to justify the initial hype of their breakthrough performances as he has done this season.

Kane, 22, make his Tottenham first-team breakthrough at the end of the 2013-14 season, and went on to star for Spurs with 21 Premier League goals in the following season.

Question marks were raised over whether the striker was a one-season wonder as he struggled through a nine-game goalless streak at the start of the current campaign, but the England international has responded to the criticism in emphatic style.

Kane leads the top flight goalscoring charts with 22 strikes in 33 games, and the forward - who has been nominated for both the PFA Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year awards - suggests that staying grounded and focusing on developing is key for youngsters to realise their potential.

Asked for the biggest challenge he think young players face, Kane told Shortlist: "I think there's a lot of hype.

"Nowadays if you have two or three good games then there's automatically this big hype around you that you're going to be the next big thing or the next big English player to come through.

"That's difficult, because there's a lot of attention that surrounds that, whether it's nightclubs or girls or money or things like that - you have to be able to cope with that.

"Obviously it is a profession at the end of the day, and we do get paid big amounts of money, but it's how you cope with that. I think as a younger player you have to have your head screwed on.

PFA Player of the Year shortlist

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"For me, I've got good people around me - good family, good friends that kept me level-headed and I still have that now.

"So the most important thing is the football, and the more the young kids realise that and focus on just the football, the better they'll be and probably the more money they'll earn in the future anyway."

Kane has come a long way since playing as a poacher for Leyton Orient back in 2011, and he credits hard work in the gym for his development into an all-round forward.

"I think a bit of it is obviously getting older, your muscles develop more, you get a bit more power, but I worked hard on it as well," he said. "I put a lot of work in the gym on my power, and my lower body side of it, because I felt like I needed to get a bit more pace in my game.

"With the finishing, I've always fancied myself as a finisher and obviously the more you practice and the older I got, getting a bit more power behind the shots, it just kind of naturally turned into it."

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