'I told them to go full gas and enjoy the experience'

England captain Harry Kane delivered a rousing speech to his teammates after victory in Riga

- Miguel Delaney

In the Riga dressing room after England had clinched World Cup 2026 qualification with a 5-0 win over Latvia, Harry Kane gave a speech in which he spoke about “keeping the same hunger” and ensuring the next camp is now treated as a proper buildup. This, the captain told less experienced teammates, is a key to going far in campaigns.

But not necessarily winning them, some might point out, since Kane hasn't yet done that with England. And yet, in all of this, the goalscorer did display an attitude that really separates top players.

For all the focus on “winners” and “getting over the line,” it’s often said in elite sport that the true key to that is how you deal with failure. Teammates of figures like Lionel Messi and Michael Jordan say they often had a certain “delusion” in the sense of not allowing defeats to foster self-doubt. They were immediately wiped.

There's a bit of that with Kane and his last major World Cup moment in 2022. The captain says he doesn't even think of the missed penalty in the 2-1 quarterfinal defeat to France any more, despite it representing “the worst” he'd ever felt on a pitch.

“I don’t think about it too much now. After another major tournament, you get over it and get on with it. I scored a penalty in the semifinal of the Euros, which was as high-pressure as you are going to get. I always try and learn from those moments,” Kane said when discussing England's ambition to claim World Cup glory next year.