Advertisement

Kane says Golden Boot win proves critics wrong

Britain Football Soccer - Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane wins the 2015/16 Barclays Golden Boot Award - London - 17/5/16 Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane wins the 2015/16 Barclays Golden Boot Award, scoring 25 goals. Mandatory Credit: Barclays via Tottenham Hotspur Livepic

(Reuters) - Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane says he has silenced his doubters by winning the Premier League's Golden Boot this season. The 22-year-old, who scored 21 goals in his debut season in 2014-15, failed to find the back of the net in his first six league games of the 2015-16 campaign, leading some sections of the British media to dub him a "one-season wonder". But Kane soon rediscovered his knack for scoring and ended the season as the Premier League's top scorer with 25 goals, becoming the first Englishman to win the honour since Sunderland's Kevin Phillips in the 1999-2000 season. "Even early on this season when I hadn't scored for a few games I was getting some criticism, so to then go on and win the Golden Boot shows I've had a great season," he told British media. "As a striker there aren't many individual awards you can win and this one shows you've had a good season throughout the whole campaign, that you've been a consistent performer." Kane was named in England's preliminary squad for next month's European Championship in France and can also look forward to Champions League football with Tottenham next season, after the team finished third in the league. (Reporting by Ian Rodricks in Bengaluru, editing by Rob Hodgetts)