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Diving deep into YouTube rabbit holes can unearth mountains of trivial knowledge, pointless conspiracy theories and, in Harry Kane's particular case, the most prestigious individual honor the sport of soccer can bestow.
Thirteen years before Kane stood in London, his hometown, holding back tears as he accepted the Ballon d'Or as the world's finest men's player, he had been sitting on his couch in a rented Leicester apartment questioning whether he had a future in the game.
A promising academy talent at Tottenham Hotspur, the teenager was in the middle of his fourth loan stint in three years — and it wasn't going to plan. Leicester City were competing in England's second division and mired in a run of just one win from 13 matches, yet Kane still couldn't break into the starting eleven.
"That was the first time in my career, I'd say, that the doubt crept in," Kane would later tell The Players' Tribune. "I just remember sitting in my flat and having this terrible realization of, like, If I can't play for Leicester in the Championship ... how am I supposed to play for Spurs in the Premier League?"
Far from home in an unfamiliar city, Kane channeled his spare time into a new passion: NFL. The New England Patriots had captured the English forward's imagination after he stumbled upon an NFL Films documentary about legendary quarterback Tom Brady that had been illegally posted to YouTube. It would prove to be a life-changing discovery.
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The Parallels Between Brady and Kane
.@HKane 🤝@TomBrady
Kane credits his American football idol as his inspiration to be great. pic.twitter.com/wtKaP9329j
The Brady Six chronicled the careers of the six quarterbacks selected ahead of Brady, who was famously picked 199th overall before going on to become the greatest the sport has ever seen. Kane was left speechless.
"It just blew my mind—but in a good way. The film really struck a chord with me. Everyone was doubting Tom his whole life," the striker reflected years later. "He reminded me of me. People were always making the same assumptions about me. [Saying:] 'Well, you know, he doesn't look like a proper striker.'"
Brady's college scouting report read: "Poor build, skinny, lacks a really strong arm, can't drive the ball downfield." Kane had faced criticism at the opposite end of the spectrum, having been released from Arsenal's academy at age 8 for being "a bit chubby."
That rejection ignited a fire in Brady — when the report is read back to the quarterback in the documentary, he fires back: "That kind of gets me fired up." It sparked something in Kane as well.
"It was genuinely inspiring to me," he recalled. "Brady believed in himself so much—and he just kept working and working, almost obsessively, in order to get better. It really connected with me. This might sound strange, but it really was like this light flicked on inside my head that day, right there on my sofa in Leicester—and all of a sudden, I said, 'You know what? I'm going to do it. I'm going to work as hard as possible, and my chance is going to come, and I'm going to grab it.'"
It was a natural motivational tool for a player who has always taken great pride in his work ethic. "I'm not a believer in it all being natural," said Alex Inglethorpe, Kane's former youth team coach at Spurs, speaking to BBC Sport when his former student first broke onto the scene. "I believe in working talent, and Harry is a working talent." That mentality is why Inglethorpe called Kane "his own best coach" — though the player himself would point to a different figure.
Mauricio Pochettino's Role in Kane's Fairytale
Kane returned to Tottenham several months after his Brady revelation with a completely transformed outlook. When manager André Villas-Boas floated the idea of another loan move, he was taken aback to hear his rarely-used youth player flatly refuse.
"I'm gonna prove to you that I should be starting on this team," Kane told the bewildered coach. "And you can tell me every Friday before the game that I don't deserve that, and that I'm not going to play. And that's fine. But I don't want to go."
It wasn't until the closing weeks of the season, after Villas-Boas had departed, that Kane finally got his opportunity. He scored in each of his first three Premier League starts for the club, yet was still regarded as third-choice when Mauricio Pochettino arrived in 2014.
"When we arrived to Tottenham, when we saw Harry Kane, we said, 'No, it's a player that we need. He's young. He needs to stay with us,'" Pochettino would later reveal. It still took 10 games into the new campaign for the current U.S. men's national team coach to hand the 20-year-old a consistent run in the side, but as always, Kane's resolve never wavered. A 90th-minute winner against Aston Villa persuaded Pochettino to take the leap of faith that would ultimately deliver Tottenham a new all-time leading scorer and England its first Ballon d'Or recipient in 25 years.
While Brady struck the spark, it was Pochettino who truly fanned the flames of Kane's ability. "No one has had a bigger impact on my career than Mauricio," he declared, giving the Argentine a personal mention in his Ballon d'Or acceptance speech.
Brady, notably, didn't receive a public mention, though the two have since crossed paths on multiple occasions, swapping stories about their respective battles against the odds. Such is Kane's lasting admiration for Brady that there is speculation he may even try his hand in the NFL as a kicker once his soccer days are behind him.
Perhaps the greatest credit of all should go to that anonymous YouTube account that brazenly ignored copyright laws to put Brady's documentary within Kane's reach. Where exactly was their shout-out?