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‘I would have been fuming’: Wayne Rooney reacts to what he’s heard said about Tottenham player
Wayne Rooney has spoken out about Tottenham talisman Harry Kane’s penalty miss for England against France.
Rooney told the that Kane was absolutely the right man to take the second penalty of the game but he sensed uncharacteristic nerves in the forward before he stepped up.
Kane equalled Rooney’s England goal record with his first spot-kick of the night, sending clubmate Hugo Lloris the wrong way.
Rooney on Kane
He said: “2022 was Harry Kane’s best tournament. And what’s next for Harry? There will be some backlash. It will happen when he plays away from home with Spurs and fans of the opposition give him stick to try and upset him. But as soon as he scores his next goal, the missed penalty will begin to be forgotten about.
“From knowing Harry, and his mentality, he’ll be able to move on — he just needs to get back on the pitch and put the ball in the net as soon as possible. Harry had to cope not just with thoughts about the record but the whole scenario.
“He was trying to get England level late in a massive game, his club captain was the opposing keeper and he had already taken a penalty in the game. For a taker, what a horrible situation. So much must have been going through Harry’s head. Do I go the same way, do I go the other way?
“He’s my teammate, he knows how I run up to the ball, my favourite side, my body shape when I kick, even the way I put the ball down on the spot — every detail. I could see his nerves, straightaway, as he prepared for the kick — little signs of anxiety that you almost never see in Harry.
“But Harry will be back. I’ve heard people say someone else should have taken it. . . no chance. As an England fan, if someone else had taken the ball I would have been fuming. There nobody else I’d wanted on that penalty but Harry.”
23 million people watched that England loss, and that means there are so many more different opinions on what Kane should have done.
Ultimately, Rooney is right. Kane was the only man who should have stepped up to take it and he was more than capable of scoring.
What a moment it would have been if he’d scored it and on another night, he does and England force their way through to extra time.