Former Arsenal and France midfielder Emmanuel Petit has caused serious uproar with some eye-opening comments about Harry Kane following the World Cup. The Three Lions were yet again unable to bring football home this summer, extending their wait for a major honour to 60 years.
Thomas Tuchel's side reached the semi-finals, but were dumped out of the competition in dramatic fashion by age-old rivals Argentina, who scored twice in the final 10 minutes to cancel out Anthony Gordon's opener.
In the immediate fallout of more heartbreak, a lot of blame fell on the manager, who had retreated to ultra-defensive tactics when England had hold of the match. But some players have also been subject to some finger-pointing themselves as of late.
Emmanuel Petit's Eye-Opening Assessment of Harry Kane's World Cup
Emmanuel Petit
While there is a belief among England fans that the team relied too heavily on the star quality of Jude Bellingham and Kane, thus prompting a concern that the team as a whole didn't have what it takes to win trophies, Petit's opinion on the latter is bound to cause a huge stir. He said, as per GOAL:
“Harry Kane’s Ballon d'Or chances are over. He scored plenty of goals and based on the Bundesliga alone, you could make a case, but in the Champions League and for England, I thought he disappeared when the biggest games came. For me, there are several players ahead of him.”
In a World Cup year, the Ballon d'Or mantle often gets awarded to a winning player. But with Spain lacking out-and-out superstars, the race to be named the best player in the world has never been so wide open.
Indeed, Lamine Yamal is considered the long-term heir to Lionel Messi's throne at Barcelona. However, the teenage sensation was nowhere near his usual best this summer, while Player of the Tournament Rodri spent all season trying to fire up his engine with Manchester City as he showed signs of struggling following recovering from an ACL injury.
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Kane enjoyed arguably the finest season of his career. Across all competitions, the talisman scored 61 goals in 51 appearances, including 36 in the Bundesliga alone to finish as the division's top scorer, alongside 14 in the Champions League, 10 in the DFB-Pokal, and one more in the Supercup, helping Bayern to a domestic treble.
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That prolific campaign was nonetheless overshadowed by continued disappointment in Europe's premier competition, with Bayern being eliminated by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League semi-final, as the French side went on to retain their title against Arsenal in the final.
His summer with England followed a similarly bittersweet pattern, with the captain scoring six goals in seven appearances at the World Cup, yet unable to prevent a 2-1 semi-final defeat to Argentina that left England to settle for third place after beating France.