We often hear stories of glory, scandal and celebrity in the money-laden world of professional football. Yet in the midst of the noise and fanfare there are a number of untold stories which don’t have the shock value to generate internet clicks or sell papers; stories which show a human side to footballers and the good that they do.
One such story involves Harry Kane, although this wasn’t part of the usual work in the community that is inspired by his employer, Tottenham Hotspur. This was something which Harry thought up himself. A random act of kindness, purely down to his ongoing desire to keep giving back to the fans who have supported him in his career to date.
Kane recently scored his 100th goal for Spurs in his 170th game. His astonishing record for the club has caused Spurs fans to call him “one of their own”. He is generally a reserved and mild-mannered individual who lets his football do the talking. There is nothing showy about Harry Kane. Precisely why when he ran a competition through his social media account it was similarly so.
Kane offered two lucky Spurs fans the chance to win VIP tickets with exclusive access for the recent “home” game against Swansea at Wembley. In order to win the prize, however, it didn’t require entrants to merely follow/like/share in order to enter. He ran the competition under the hashtag #Kanecompetition and requested people to nominate somebody else to win the prize. Someone “whose brilliance means they deserve to win.”
In the end, Kane chose the winners for his competition, one of whom was a lady called Roxanne Francis who saved had someone’s life at last season’s Spurs vs West Ham game by administering CPR, hence why she was nominated. In that game, incidentally, Kane scored a last minute winner from the penalty spot.
Kane explained why he chose the winners:
“I was really taken back by some of the nominations, Roxanne especially is an incredible person, performing CPR and saving the life of a Spurs fan at White Hart Lane last season, that’s just amazing. The fans are what makes football so special, I’ve always got on with the Spurs fans and have a bond with them, to be in the position to give something back is great and hopefully I can make it something more regular!”
To add to the winner’s joy and despite the player’s disappointment following the team’s frustrating 0-0 draw with Swansea, Kane appeared for photographs by the Wembley tunnel area; an added and unexpected bonus for the fans when he could easily have donned his headphones and left the stadium unseen.
“It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while. It’s important to give back to the fans and after reading Roxanne and Julian’s stories I really wanted to meet them and give them and their families a great day at Wembley. It was just a shame we couldn’t find the goals, but I hope they still enjoyed their day.”
Kane clearly appreciates his current environment and the journey that brought him to this stage of his career. At the heart of it are the fans and by divesting a little joy to those that are the lifeblood of our game, he has also shown that footballers are human too.
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