Back
Kyle Walker has revealed how close Harry Kane came to swapping Tottenham Hotspur for Manchester City in the summer of 2021.
Back in the summer of 2021, following the depature of Jose Mourinho and the appointment of Nuno Espírito Santo, Kane informed Spurs that he wanted to move to Man City.
In fact, the striker even returned late for pre-season training in an alleged attempt to push through a move to Pep Guardiola’s side.
However, Tottenham and Man City were unable to agree on a fee for the centre-forward, and the England captain had to wait two more years before making a £86m move to Bayern Munich.
Spurs’ record goalscorer has gone up another level since his switch to the Bundesliga giants, and Kane is now the favourite to win the 2026 Ballon d’Or.
However, things could have been very different for the striker had he got his way five years ago.
Kane’s former Tottenham and England teammate, Walker, has now revealed that the Spurs academy graduate was indeed keen on making the switch to the Etihad Stadium.
The Burnley right-back revealed that the striker wanted to get the monkey off his back at the time and win silverware, and felt a move to City would allow him to do that.
When asked about Kane’s failed move to City five years ago, Walker told talkSPORT: “I think he was just at a point in his career where he wanted to go and win trophies.
“That was the one cloud over his head. He’s a great player and has got all these personal accolades for himself, but he’d never won anything for a club.”
“He said, ‘I want to come,’ and was asking me a little bit about it, but I’m guessing the clubs couldn’t reach an agreement.”
Looking back now, one would think that Kane would be pretty pleased that the move to City fell through, not just because of what he has gone on to achieve at Bayern.
Man City have been found guilty of major financial breaches by the Premier League, and if the guilty verdict stands, there would have been an asterisk over any silverware he had won at the club.
Walker had already been at Tottenham for four seasons by the time Kane established himself as a first-team fixture.
The right-back, who observed the striker’s formative years, revealed that the 33-year-old was not the most physically gifted, but admitted that he never stopped working to improve different parts of his game.
Walker added about the Spurs legend: “He was a little bit overweight. He could finish, but he wasn’t very mobile. There’s not one training session or one stone left unturned that he doesn’t try and make himself a better player,” Walker added.
“I think he’s a great example to every young kid coming up. You might not be the best at the start, but if you’ve got a goal and an objective you want to get, you can get there.”