Harry Kane deserved Player of the Year

Tottenham Hotspur forward Harry Kane has proven he and not Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante deserved to win Player of the Year.

It does not seem as if it was all that long ago when Tottenham Hotspur forward Harry Kane was viewed as a “one-hit wonder” by critics, doubters and those who take joy in hitting out at Spurs for one reason or another. Kane has since proven his 2014-15 campaign was no fluke, as he has established himself as the top striker and top goalscorer in the Premier League and a player worthy of a massive transfer fee if a club were to come calling for his services.

Nevertheless, Kane continues to be somewhat of a disrespected figure in the eyes of some observers and football fans who discount what he has meant to the Tottenham squad. A month ago, it was essentially assumed Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante was going to win the Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year award, an honor he took home with little, or no, complaints from journalists and experts.

Kane is sometimes a forgotten man even among his Spurs teammates. Dele Alli is often seen as the next Tottenham superstar capable of following in the footsteps of Gareth Bale and setting a transfer fee record while making a move to a giant club such as Real Madrid and Barcelona. The perception exists extraordinary play-maker Christian Eriksen could feature for just about any side in the world.

Meanwhile, the argument could be made Kane’s 2016-17 season was the best of his career and one worthy of earning him Player of the Year. The 23-year-old who has been a streaky scorer, as strikers can be, experienced a slow start to the campaign, in part because of an ankle injury that kept him sidelined from the middle of September through the first midweek of November. A different ankle knock cost Kane several weeks of action during the early portions of spring.

Despite those physical setbacks, Kane is 90 minutes of football away from clinching the Premier League Golden Boot for the second straight season. After putting four past Leicester City in Tottenham’s 6-1 victory on May 18, Kane enters the final Sunday of the season on 26 goals, two ahead of Everton’s Romelu Lukaku and three ahead of Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez. Perhaps most impressive of all is that Kane has, thus far, made only 29 league appearances.

Spurs will travel to already-relegated Hull City on May 21, and it’s expected Kane will feature for Spurs. Even if he doesn’t hit the back of the net a single time versus Hull, he still will have nearly averaged one goal per league appearance. None of the others competing for the Golden Boot can boast of such a statistic.

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Offering high praise for Kane and suggesting he deserved Player of the Year honors is not meant to take anything away from Kante. The 26-year-old showed he was worth every penny — roughly £32 million per Sky Sports — Chelsea paid for him, as he quickly became an integral part of the best overall squad in England that ultimately climbed up the table en route to winning the league with style and class.

With that said, Kante may not have been the best overall player in the Chelsea team this season. When at his absolute best, Eden Hazard is a true Ballon d’Or candidate. Diego Costa and Cesar Azpilicueta also stood out in a team with more depth and more talent than any in England. Who can say, with any certainty, Chelsea couldn’t have still won the league for 2016-17 if one were to replace Kante with a similar, but lesser, talent?

Yes, Tottenham found ways to win without Kane on the pitch, but there’s no denying Spurs are better when the striker is up front and capable of scoring a variety of goals, while at the same time creating and opening opportunities for those around him. Tottenham fans can only dream of what could have been in the title race, let alone in Europe, had Kane not missed multiple months due to injury woes.

Just as with Kante at Chelsea, Kane is not Tottenham’s most gifted player. Kane is the face of Spurs and the team’s top scorer, though, and he may have surpassed Gareth Bale as the club’s top star of the decade. Fans, not to mention award voters, need to appreciate Kane as long as possible.