Dion Dublin has watched a lot of strikers. He thinks Harry Kane could be a kicker in the NFL, too.
“Harry Kane in the NFL? It’d be amazing,” the former Manchester United and Aston Villa forward told BetVictor in an interview widely reported this week.
“You’d have to back him to be a success.”
Kane has already put the idea on the table himself. On a podcast appearance in September, the Bayern striker said he was serious about trying his hand at field-goal kicking once his playing days are over.
Read also: The Champions League keeps rewriting its own scoring record, and the format debate is back
“That is something I will try and look at a bit more seriously,” Kane told the podcast.
He said the fundamentals were already there, drawing a line from the penalty spot to the uprights.
“I take penalties and it is a very similar pressure, technique.”
If he did pursue it, Kane added, he would prepare properly.
Read also: Florian Wirtz told he has no future at Liverpool despite stunning Premier League performance
“If I was to do it, it is something I would take seriously. I would take maybe six months to a year of trying to practice before.”
‘His numbers are bizarre’
Before any end zone, there is the London Palladium.
The Ballon d’Or ceremony is on Monday, 26 October, UEFA has confirmed, with proceedings scheduled for 8pm local time at the London Palladium. The 70-year-old award has moved from its traditional Paris home for this edition.
Dublin wants it to end with Kane on the stage.
Read also: Bonmatí is off the list and the Women’s Ballon d’Or is anyone’s to take
“I don’t want Harry Kane to fall just short of the Ballon d’Or, because he’s just been so prolific, and I think he deserves it,” Dublin told BetVictor.
“For me, Harry has to win it. As good as Lamine Yamal is, and I love watching him, Harry deserves to get it for me.”
“Look at his numbers, his numbers are bizarre!”
The numbers back the pundit up. Kane, 33, scored 73 goals for club and country in 2025-26, a tally he himself has called the second-highest total in a single season after Lionel Messi’s 82 in 2011-12. The haul included Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal titles with Bayern Munich.
Read also: Erling Haaland’s extraordinary $10,000 shopping trip takes a bizarre turn
Mauricio Pochettino, who coached Kane at Tottenham, offered a similar verdict last month.
“I think he deserves it as the reward for his career and for all what he has done in football,” Pochettino said.
The caveat was the big-tournament knockout rounds, where England and Bayern both bowed out at the semi-final stage.
“I don’t know if he is going to be punished for the World Cup or the Champions League because he played in both semifinals,” Pochettino added.
Read also: Lando Norris admits he is being treated differently in F1 after becoming world champion
No Englishman has lifted it since 2001
If Kane does win on Monday, he will become the first English Ballon d’Or winner since Michael Owen in 2001, a 25-year gap that has outlasted a generation of serious English contenders.
Betting markets have him as a decisive favourite ahead of Yamal, who is the only other name consistently priced as a serious contender.
Cam Little is on board, with a caveat
An actual NFL kicker thinks Dublin’s wilder prediction is not that wild. Cam Little, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ kicker, said this month that Kane’s technique would translate.
“He’s probably talented enough to do it,” Little told ESPN.
“His technique in soccer is so good.”
Little’s warning was about the role, not the leg. A striker goes looking for the ball; a kicker gets a handful of chances a game and has to make all of them.
“It’d be like him taking five set pieces a day. And he’s got to deliver on all five set pieces, or you didn’t do your job for the day.”
Kane has told interviewers he is in no hurry.
“Right now I am feeling that I want to play as long as I can here,” he said in September.
An MLS move, he suggested, could be the bridge if he does make the switch.
“It might be a thing where you could connect the two maybe with the seasons.”
The Ballon d’Or ceremony begins at 8pm local time on Monday at the London Palladium.
