Chairman of Harry Kane's former club left red-faced after once saying he 'wasn't good enough' for Tottenham

Harry Kane's remarkable journey to winning the Ballon d'Or has brought back comments from a chairman who once wrote off his Premier League career entirely.

Kane beat Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal to claim football's most prestigious individual prize at London's Palladium on October 26, becoming the first Englishman since Michael Owen in 2001 to collect the gong.

The 33-year-old deserved his flowers after destroying defences for Bayern Munich with 61 goals in 51 matches across all competitions last term, while scoring another 12 for England, including six at the World Cup.

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Barry Hearn once wrote Harry Kane off at Leyton Orient

Kane gave a powerful speech as he stood on the stage to collect the award, and he thanked all of the managers who helped him develop into arguably the world's best striker.

The Englishman even mentioned Leyton Orient boss Russell Slade, who managed the then-17-year-old in 2011 after he was loaned to the O's from Tottenham by Harry Redknapp for the second half of the 2010/11 season.

He scored five goals for the then-League One side in 18 appearances, but that return wasn't enough to convince former Orient chairman Barry Hearn of his talent.

Redknapp recalled that Hearn, the founder of Matchroom Sport, said that Kane would "never be good enough" to play for Spurs, insisting that Andros Townsend and Steven Caulker were better than him at the time.

"He said, ‘Harry loaned me three players — and at the end of the season we stayed up,' Redknapp said, as per The Sun.

“Hearn recalled saying at the time, ‘Andros Townsend, he could go back and play for Tottenham’, which he did; he played for England.

“Stephen Caulker, he could go back and play for Tottenham’, he did — and he played for England, too.

“He said, ‘Kane, no, he’ll never be good enough to play for Tottenham’, but he said at the function, ‘Shows you what I knew about football!"

Thankfully, Redknapp didn't let Hearn's verdict on Kane influence his opinion of him, as he handed him his senior debut for Spurs in the Europa League qualifier against Hearts months later. The rest, as they say, is history.

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Harry Kane breaks little-known trend after winning Ballon d'Or

Kane isn't just the first Englishman to win the Ballon d'Or in 25 years. The Bayern Munich goal machine has broken a trend that makes the achievement even more impressive.

He is the only player among the Ballon d'Or winners over the past 30 years who has collected the award without winning an international competition, either with his club or national team.

Of course, two of his strongest competitors for the award have both tasted glory on the international stage, with Mbappe winning the World Cup with France in 2018 and Yamal lifting the Euros and World Cup.

The closest Kane has come to lifting a trophy with England is at Euro 2020 when they suffered a penalty shootout defeat to Italy in the final, and then at Euro 2024, when a Yamal-inspired Spain secured a 2-1 victory in Berlin.

The striker was left heartbroken once more at a World Cup this summer after the Three Lions lost in the semi-finals to Argentina. Luckily, that result didn't impact Kane's chance of winning the Ballon d'Or - as many thought - and he proved that individual brilliance can prevail over international glory.