Harry Kane is not a comfortable superstar nor would he consider red carpet and glitz as his natural habitat. The smiles beforehand were broad but deliberate, as if rehearsing lines in his head. But as he walked to the stage we got a glimpse of the real deal, a man struggling to believe he could ever be named as the best of them all. 

It was never supposed to be like this. Not for people like him. A boy who had a dream to be a professional, to get a break in the Premier League after those four loan spells, to stay in the Tottenham team, to maybe one day even play for England.

The dreams kept on growing and Kane kept on improving so quickly it expanded his horizons beyond comprehension. Back in London, holding this trophy? Ludicrous on every level. 

It is true that this was not a vintage year for individual performance. Had Lamine Yamal even been in Spain’s top five difference makers at the World Cup then he would have been a racing certainty. While he won the trophies but never quite held centre stage in the USA, Kylian Mbappe had the opposite issue – he won the World Cup Golden Boot but no major trophy at club or international level.

Kane therefore seemed like the middle-ground candidate, even if that appears a little like damnation through faint praise. He spearheaded a league title win. He scored in all five of the Champions League knockout matches in which he played. He scored six times at the World Cup. All of this has become routine for Kane and so too easy to overlook.

Yes, Kane ended up with the sour taste of semi-final syndrome on his lips. No, he may not have had as much of a chance in other years, certainly not during the Messi-Ronaldo duopoly years when finishing third was the best any normal superstar could hope for. 

But the principal reason to doubt Kane? He’s English. England had had one Ballon D’Or winner in 47 years and we were used to that never being repeated. Between 2018 and 2024, England didn’t even have a player in the top 10. We didn’t mind really – the British have an uncomfortable relationship with celebrating individualism. 

As a result of Kane’s move to Germany, he has become viewed more on these shores through the prism of England form and his international consistency has become normalised to the point of expectation. Hear this: Kane has scored more England goals since turning 28 than any other player did in their entire career.

Perhaps it merely reflects a general anger about the inability of the England team to win tournaments despite almost touching the trophy, but Kane is often judged for what he is perceived to be rather than what he clearly is. Well now he has been crowned, gloriously and definitively. Maybe we could cut him some slack for five minutes or so.

You can absolutely make Kane’s case as a lifetime achievement winner more than him being the best player in the world right now (he might not even be the best English player right now and Jude Bellingham finished 11th). But then so what? He had scored 146 club goals in three seasons and 308 league goals in 12.

This is an individual award and Kane’s individual numbers were superhuman. He played 51 times for Bayern Munich and scored 61 goals. Remember that freak goalscoring robot Erling Haaland? Kane scored nine more league goals than him in four fewer matches. He scored 73 goals in total for club and country, a total only ever beaten by Lionel Messi (and even he only did it once). And Messi is Messi.

Why should we have individual awards? In a team sport, the results are achieved on the pitch and the medals handed out accordingly. The rise of the Messi-Ronaldo axis was unprecedented, two of the game’s greatest ever coexisting and on the same pitch and podium. Their rivalry, pantomime as it was, forged an individualism in football that has been hard to shake. 

To some it represents much that is wrong about player power and PR politicking. But if there is any due cause at all, this award should honour either alien natural talent or unrivalled work to turn potential into greater performance than we could ever have imagined. 

Kane has no real case on the former. He was never the most talented, never touched by god like so many of those potential winners before him. But for sheer will to maximise your lot, he is every bit worthy. The supposed one-season wonder, the boy who started scoring and simply never stopped, merits his place on top of the world. Believe in your dream, however silly it may seem.