“Don’t always go near post with your shots. Go across goal sometimes. You know why? Goalkeepers watch you on TV all the time. So next time… across!”

Those were the words Diego Maradona pressed on Harry Kane in the Tottenham dressing room before Spurs’ home game against Liverpool at Wembley in October 2017, as recounted by Football365. The Argentine, invited into the inner sanctum by then manager Mauricio Pochettino, had already turned to the room with a wider verdict, calling the striker “a goalscorer” and crediting Pochettino with building “a real backbone” at the club.

The clip, filmed by the club’s own cameras, has flooded X and TikTok timelines over the past four days.

From a dressing-room cameo to a Ballon d’Or

Kane lifted the Ballon d’Or at the London Palladium nine years after that encounter, confirmed by UEFA following his 73-goal haul across the 2025/26 campaign.

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The breakdown was 61 goals and 7 assists in 51 matches for Bayern, plus 6 goals in 7 games for England at the 2026 World Cup, where the national team finished third. At club level, Bayern won the Bundesliga and the German Cup and reached the Champions League semi-finals.

Kane is the first English winner of the award since Michael Owen in 2001, a gap of 25 years, and only the fifth English player to lift it after Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan and Owen.

Kane’s own account of the meeting

Kane spoke about the Maradona encounter the day it happened. He had just scored twice in a 4-1 win over Liverpool.

“He’s a fantastic guy. I got to meet him before the game, great energy, great guy,” he told Sports Illustrated.

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The language barrier did not stand in the way of a short conversation and a hug, with Pochettino acting as the bridge.

“He didn’t speak much English, just speaking in Spanish so I didn’t really understand what he was saying, but he was very energetic. He said some nice compliments, not just to me but to the team and to the manager.”

Maradona died aged 60 on 25 November 2020 at his home outside Buenos Aires.

Kane’s next outing in a Bayern shirt is Der Klassiker at home to Borussia Dortmund on Saturday, with kick-off at 6:30pm local time at the Allianz Arena.

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