Harry Kane and the World Cup semi-final that ended like all the others

5 min readJul 16, 2026 05:28 PM IST

A dejected Harry Kane after England were knocked out from FIFA World Cup 2026. (AP)

Harry Kane stood with his hands on his hips and looked at the grass. Around him the Atlanta stadium had split into two noises, one of which had nothing to do with him any more. Lionel Messi came over, took Kane’s head in both hands, and pulled it into his shoulder. Kane let it stay there. Then he straightened, turned towards the England end, walked the length of the pitch and slowly began to clap towards the English crowd. He found Jude Bellingham and held him. Bellingham, ten years his junior, was seen minutes later with his face in his hand. Anthony Gordon, who had scored the goal England could not keep, stood apart from all of it, hands on his hips, watching.

England had led since the 55th minute. Enzo Fernandez bent one in from distance in the 85th. Two minutes into stoppage time Messi crossed and Lautaro Martínez headed the winner. “It’s a similar story to what’s happened in previous tournaments,” Kane said afterwards. “We’d done so well for that 60 minutes. We scored. We deserved to be ahead. And then, for one reason or another, we struggled to keep the ball.”

He has said versions of this sentence in Moscow, at Wembley, in Al Khor, in Berlin. He is 32 and word perfect at it.

***

In 1999, on his first day at Ridgeway Rovers in Chingford, a coach named Dave Bricknell asked his six-year-olds if anyone fancied going in goal. Kane’s hand went up. “I thought I’d found a goalkeeper,” Bricknell says. The parents on the touchline put him right. Arsenal took him, looked at him, decided he was too chubby, too unathletic, and let him go. Spurs took another look, then spent years lending him out, Leyton Orient, Millwall, a relegation battle, a forgotten Under-20 World Cup in Turkey. Peter Taylor, who coached that team, says he could not have predicted the career. “You couldn’t meet a nicer boy,” he said. That is not the same thing as a prediction.

“He didn’t really care if he missed, because he knew another chance would come along.”

***

The chance came. It always came. That is the part the record books show and the part that tells the least of it.

What the books do not show is the 30th minute in Moscow in 2018, England leading Croatia in a World Cup semi-final and Kane two yards out with a rebound sitting up. He shot. Goalkeeper Danijel Subasic got a hand to it. The ball came back. He shot again. The ball hit the post and ricocheted off Subasic’s leg. Subasic had sprinted back from nowhere and thrown himself along the ground to divert it with his foot, from two yards, at a ball that had already beaten him once.

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Harry Kane in action during World Cup 2026 semifinal against Argentina. (AP)

What the books do not show is the 108th minute at Wembley in 2021, England leading Italy in a European final, Kane crossing from the right, the ball travelling across the six-yard box, Stones arriving at the far post with his head. Donnarumma came off his line and punched it away with both fists. Two minutes of extra time remained.

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What the books do not show is Al Khor, 2022 in Qatar. Level with France, 84th minute, Kane having already scored once from the spot. He placed it the same way he always places it, low, to the right, the corner he owns. But this time it left his foot differently, climbing instead of staying down, clearing the bar by several feet. He knew before it landed. The shirt came up over his face before anyone in the ground had stopped watching the ball.

***

Last summer, Bayern Munich played a pre-season friendly at Tottenham. Kane walked back into the stadium he had given nineteen years to. Bayern won. At the end a small trophy was produced and the team gathered. Kane shook his head, would not lift it, would not hold something in front of the people he had left without one.

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His striker coach Allan Russell once drew the distinction that unlocks him. “Is he a nice guy? No. He’s a good guy. Nice guys get taken advantage of.” Beneath the mildness is something harder. Six goals in six games here, England’s all-time World Cup record taken off Gary Lineker along the way, at 32, at the age strikers are supposed to be slowing down. The mildness has a source too.

Kate Goodland has known him since they were pupils at the same Chingford school, both photographed with David Beckham in 2005, aged 11 and 12, before either had any idea what the picture would come to mean. He tapes his wedding ring before every match. Four children were watching somewhere on Wednesday night.

Afterwards, asked about his England future, Kane looked across at the man who had just beaten him, still deciding matches at 39. “As you see on the other end with Leo there, he’s still performing at the highest level. So I never want to put a limit on these things.”

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Bricknell’s boy never cared about the miss. Another chance might come along.