Andros Townsend has admitted that former Tottenham teammate Harry Kane always had “incredible” ability, but the Crystal Palace attacker didn’t see him progressing into a world class talent.
Townsend was also a product of the Spurs Academy and played with Kane at youth level, before the duo turned out for Tottenham’s first-team and for England.
During his final campaign at White Hart Lane – which was Kane’s breakthrough season at White Hart Lane – Kane scored 31 times in 51 appearances, appeared in the PFA Team of the Year and was also named as PFA Young Player of the Year in 2014-2015 after finishing just five goals behind top goalscorer Sergio Aguero.
Since then, Kane has gone on to hit the heights of winning the Premier League Golden Boot on two occasions, becoming one of the best strikers in Europe, which led to him being named England captain back in 2017.
Remarkably, despite making his international debut just five years ago, the Spurs man is just 21 goals behind Wayne Rooney’s Three Lions goalscoring record of 53.
“If you’d told me Harry would win the Golden Boot and be England captain by now, I wouldn’t have seen it,” Townsend told Sky Sports.
“But what he did have from a young age, the first time I saw him, was an incredible ability to score goals from any angle. Left foot, right foot, header.
“But I didn’t see how big he was going to be and what a world-class player he was going to be, but he always had the ability to play in the first team.”
