Harry Kane’s hunger for competition drives him on despite lack of rest

Harry Kane is discussing his summer break, which will begin after England’s Nations League tie against Hungary at Molineux on Tuesday night, and last for a little over three weeks. It is plainly not long enough.

The striker will make his 62nd appearance of the season for club and country against Hungary and, on 9 July, he will be on a flight to South Korea for Spurs’s pre-season tour when, as an aside, he will be assailed by Son Heung-min mania.

The new season will resume with indecent haste – the Premier League kicks off on 5 August, a week earlier than last year – and it will be a relentless churn of weekend-midweek-weekend fixtures until the World Cup in Qatar, which starts on 21 November.

What will Kane do with his precious three weeks off? How can he draw the maximum value from it? By getting away, first and foremost. “I’ll be abroad for the three weeks,” he says. By kicking back with his wife and children and by keeping on top of his fitness in the gym, even if he does not think “you can lose too much in three weeks”.

One other thing – golf. Kane will fit in a round whenever he can and he will also compete in the two-day Icons Series at the Liberty National club in New Jersey, which begins on 30 June. “It’ll be good fun, playing under pressure in front of a crowd,” Kane says, nonchalantly. At which point, it is fair to assume he is simply addicted to competing.

Kane describes it as a Ryder Cup-style showpiece, sports stars from the United States going up against a Rest of the World team. He runs through a couple of the players on his side: the Liverpool midfielder James Milner; the boxer Canelo Álvarez. Kane does not mention another teammate, the Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola. Imagine this had happened last summer …

In contrast to back then, when Kane tried and failed to drive a move to City, he feels settled at Spurs, who have been revitalised under Antonio Conte and returned to the Champions League.

“First and foremost, I’m looking forward to getting away [on holiday] but the plan is to get back [for pre-season] on 8 July and head to Korea with the boys,” Kane says. “I look forward to another season [at Spurs]. I got on really well with Antonio in the time he was there and I’m looking forward to next season and what’s to come.”

Back to golf. Kane name-checks a couple of the US team: the swimming legend Michael Phelps and the NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, who he is friends with.

Kane plays off scratch and he said on the Friday before last that, when his football career was over, he would love to win the Green Jacket at the Masters. “You never know! I’m doing all right,” he adds now.

Would Kane seriously consider becoming a professional golfer? “That’s a long way away,” he replies. “You never say never in anything. I’m way off what the pros are at – I know that for sure. I’m concentrating on football. Golf is a great hobby to have to get away from football – especially during the season. That’s what I use it for at the moment.”

Kane’s juices are going because of Hungary, when England want to record a first win of the Nations League campaign. They opened with a loss to Hungary in Budapest on the Saturday before last before drawing with Germany in Munich and Italy at Molineux. A goal in open play is overdue. England’s only reward so far has been Kane’s penalty equaliser against Germany.

The performances have been mainly stilted and they have led to the usual frustrations, the criticism of the manager, Gareth Southgate; the progress under him overlooked. The goalscoring burden has come to rest heavily on Kane, with Southgate saying the load had to be spread more evenly away from the captain and Raheem Sterling. Not that Kane seems unduly flustered. By that or the three results so far.

“Being an England player, you’re always going to have criticism when maybe you don’t win for a couple of games,” Kane says. “But within this squad and the staff and manager, we have a bigger vision of where we want to go and, of course, the World Cup is the most important thing for us this year. It’s been important to use these Nations League games to prepare for that.”

All the while, Kane edges closer to the England goalscoring record. His penalty against Germany was his 50th – three short of Wayne Rooney’s mark. Kane’s mind goes back to the game in which Rooney overtook the previous record holder, Sir Bobby Charlton – the 2-0 Wembley win over Switzerland in 2015. Kane scored the first that night, on his fourth England appearance, before Rooney added a late penalty.

“I remember when he broke the record, how much it meant to him and even for me – being a part of it,” Kane says. “I kept my shirt from that day and I have it up in my house. Not for any reason but maybe looking at that every day gave me the motivation to one day try to achieve that.”