The sight of Harry Kane leading out the England team is a familiar one these days, but it hasn't always been that way.
Tottenham striker Kane has skippered the Three Lions since 2018, taking over the role ahead of the World Cup in Russia. England reached the semi-finals of that tournament, with Kane himself winning the Golden Boot after scoring six goals.
The 29-year-old has worked his way up, going out on loan several times during the early part of his career with Tottenham before establishing himself for club and country. Three key changes have helped him achieve that, and Mirror Football has taken a closer look.
Training
Kane's growth owes a lot to his work on the training ground. And, while he recognised the value of that work in getting him to a high level, he has shown no signs of slowing down.
“I’ve got to where I am by working hard," Kane told Men's Health in 2021. "But now I have to work even harder to stay here, because there’s that next person who wants to take my position.
"That’s my mindset: someone is always trying to be better than me, so I’ve got to make sure I work harder than anyone else.”
Kane considers NFL star Tom Brady to be his sporting hero, and has taken inspiration from the veteran. Brady went back on plans to retire, and is still going strong at the age of 45.
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"Brady believed in himself so much — and he just kept working and working, almost obsessively, in order to get better," Kane wrote in The Players' Tribune. "It really connected with me.
"This might sound strange, but it really was like this light flicked on inside my head that day, right there on my sofa in Leicester — and all of a sudden, I said, “You know what? I’m going to do it . I’m going to work as hard as possible, and my chance is going to come, and I’m going to grab it.”
Diet
It's more than just training for Kane, though. The striker has also made changes to his diet to give himself the best possible chance of staying at the top.
"It clicked in my head a football career goes so quickly, so you have to make every day count," he told The Guardian in 2017. "But you can’t train as hard as you’d like when you have so many games to play, so you have to make the little gains elsewhere.
The striker revealed he had been recommended a chef, who he spoke to for advice on his diet. These conversations helped change his outlook, despite - as he puts it - never having eaten "badly" before.
"I’d always eaten well, never badly, but he [the chef] explained what you could do," Kane added. "It’s not always about just eating the right food, but eating it at the right times.
“You can eat healthily all week and then stock up on carbs before a game, but your body might not be used to that and could actually go into a kind of shock. So it’s about making plans around training, maybe stocking up on carbs sometimes, and going lower at other times."
Recovery
While preparation is key for Kane, recovery is important as well. The striker has suggested down-time is something to be valued, and something which some don't always recognise the value of.
"There are always little percentages [to gain], whether it’s training, diet or recovery," Kane told Men's Health while referencing Brady's impact. "They’re the big differences, because in our football, the margins of error are so small.
"My schedule is all about recovery," he added. "I think that’s where a lot of footballers maybe get it a bit wrong. They try to do too much, especially at a young age."
In the Guardian interview, meanwhile, he went into more specifics. "When you’re playing Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday there’s not a lot of time to train, so it’s about making those little gains in other ways," he said. "Ice baths, stretching, nutrition … little things that keep as you as fresh as you can be."
Despite scoring more than any other player at the 2018 World Cup, Kane is yet to open his account in Qatar. There had been injury concerns ahead of the USA draw, but he was fit to start and is keen to feature again against Wales.
With small gaps between games throughout the tournament, preparation and recovery will be key if England are to go far. Kane has already benefited from his personal changes, and he's likely to have a busy few weeks ahead both on and off the pitch.
