LONDON: Tottenham striker Harry Kane said his head has not been turned by speculation linking him with a move to Bayern Munich as the England captain prepares for a huge few months for club and country.
Kane failed to engineer a move to Manchester City last year and has just over 18 months left on his contract at Tottenham.
Bayern are rumored to be preparing a bid for the 29-year-old to succeed Robert Lewandowski as the German champions’ center-forward.
“I’m focusing on Tottenham Hotspur and trying to do our best,” said Kane as he faced the media ahead of Spurs’ Champions League clash with Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday.
“For sure Bayern are a top, top club but all my concentration is on Tottenham.”
Kane faces a brutal schedule before the end of the year with Tottenham having 10 more games before the break for the World Cup in November.
England boss Gareth Southgate admitted at the weekend he expects to lose more players to injury ahead of the tournament in Qatar due to the demands put on his squad.
But Kane said he cannot hold anything back as he tries to fire Tottenham into the Premier League title race and reach the knockout stages of the Champions League.
“I feel like whenever you think about injuries, whenever you think about getting injured, it almost has the wrong effect,” he added.
“I go into every game trying to give 120 percent for the team and that’s just the way football is. Sometimes you can be unfortunate and pick up injuries.
“From my point of view, I do a lot of stuff, not just at the club but away from the club, to make sure I recover well and put myself in the best physical condition I can to not get injured. But, of course, we know in football, anything can happen.”
Kane has scored eight goals in nine Premier League games this season, but his start to the campaign has been overshadowed by Erling Haaland’s blistering beginning to his Manchester City career.
The Norwegian’s arrival at the Etihad killed off any talk of Kane moving to City and Haaland already has 20 goals for the English champions.
“He has had a fantastic start to the season and full credit to him but it is nothing I can control,” said Kane on his chances of catching Haaland in the race for the Golden Boot.
“I am concentrating on what I can do and helping the team in any way that is possible.”
Bayern a ‘top club’, but Kane focused on Spurs
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Bayern a ‘top club’, but Kane focused on Spurs
- Kane failed to engineer a move to Manchester City last year
- Bayern are rumoured to be preparing a bid for the 29-year-old to succeed Robert Lewandowski
Status of Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in doubt less than 2 weeks before start in Morocco
- “The matter is receiving urgent and high level attention,” September said on X
- “We will never be held hostage by countries that have less than what we have,” McKenzie said
CAIRO: Doubts over Morocco’s willingness to host the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in less than two weeks have prompted the Confederation of African Football to say it will clarify the matter in the coming days.
“There has been several discussions for weeks. The matter is receiving urgent and high level attention,” CAF’s communications chief Luxolo September said on the social network X on Wednesday.
Morocco is due to host the tournament for the third time straight from March 17 to April 3, but reports that the country will withdraw have persisted despite CAF president Patrice Motsepe saying on Feb. 13 that the 16th edition of the tournament was to go ahead in the kingdom as planned.
“We still have an engagement with Morocco,” Motsepe said at the time, when he ruled out changing the dates because the tournament doubles as a qualifying event for the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
South Africa previously offered to step in as host.
On Wednesday, South African sports minister Gayton McKenzie blasted Morocco for leaving the status of the tournament in doubt 13 days before it is due to begin.
“If Morocco is ready to host the WAFCON because they had a brilliant AFCON, they should do so. But if they are not ready, we want to tell them, we are not a country with no stadiums, we are not a country with less infrastructure. We will never be held hostage by countries that have less than what we have,” McKenzie said. “We will not allow women to be treated in such a fashion.”
CAF expanded the tournament to 16 teams in a surprise decision in November.
Nigeria are the defending champion after coming back to beat Morocco 3-2 in the final last year.
Morocco also lost the final of the men’s Africa Cup to Senegal in January.
The ambitious kingdom is also a co-host for the men’s World Cup in 2030.
