Harry Kane signs new six-year contract as Tottenham smash wage ceiling• England captain to earn £200,000 a week plus bonuses
• Move is statement of intent as club tie up biggest names
Harry Kane has signed a new six‑year contract at Tottenham Hotspur worth up to £200,000 a week including bonuses as the club’s chairman, Daniel Levy, dramatically raised the wage ceiling of the squad. Kane, who is preparing to lead England as captain at the World Cup finals in Russia, was previously on a basic wage of £100,000 a week. Under the terms of that deal, which he signed in December 2016 and was due to run until 2022, he also earned hefty bonuses. The 24-year-old’s latest deal – his fourth at the club since August 2014 – reflects the steepness of his career trajectory and his superstar status but also his love of Tottenham, where he has played since he was a boy. He has secured a massive pay rise but the truth is that he could have got even more elsewhere – at Real Madrid, for example, who are among the European elite that covet him.
Kane’s commitment remains a delight to Tottenham’s supporters and he is driven by the dream of winning something with them. He has spoken on many occasions about how sweet it would be to enjoy success at his boyhood club and end a trophy drought that stretches back to 2008.
Kane’s other motivation is to improve year on year, as he has done since his breakthrough season in 2014‑15, when he scored 21 Premier League goals. Since then he has won two Golden Boots, with 25- and 29-goal seasons, and this season he finished with 30 goals in the competition. Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah pipped him to the top‑scorer award with 32.
Kane scored 41 goals in all competitions for Tottenham – a career high – and five for England. He will be after more in Russia, where England open their campaign against Tunisia on Monday week. Kane has 13 international goals from 24 caps.
Like the rest of the football world Kane has long been in awe of the numbers posted by Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo but his own have begun to enter the same stratosphere. He finished the calendar year of 2017 as the top scorer in the European game with 56 goals for club and country. He is determined to break the Messi-Ronaldo duopoly on the Ballon d’Or.
Kane broke Alan Shearer’s record in 2017 for the most Premier League goals in a calendar year with 39 and he has surpassed Teddy Sheringham as Tottenham’s leading scorer in the Premier League era. He has 108 Premier League goals in 150 appearances.
The repercussions of Kane’s deal are wide-ranging and what will please the manager, Mauricio Pochettino, and the fans the most is that it signals the club’s ability to compete on the market for a higher grade of player.
Deals for Pochettino targets such as Manchester United’s Anthony Martial and Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha suddenly do not look far-fetched. Zaha earns upwards of £120,000 a week. Until Levy’s restructuring of his club’s pay scale, it would have been difficult to move for him. It should be noted that a deal for Zaha would remain tough, with Palace resolute in their stance that he is not for sale.
Pochettino called last month for Levy to “be brave and take risks” before the club’s move into their rebuilt 62,062-seat stadium and a raising of the wage ceiling was one of the things he had in mind. It is a part of the drive to make Tottenham a destination club for players rather than a stepping stone.
Pochettino has since committed to a new five-year contract, worth up to £8.5m a year, and a clutch of players is expected to follow his lead and that of Kane, including Hugo Lloris, Jan Vertonghen, Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli.
Spurs announced Kane’s re-signing via a short video on Twitter, in which he appeared in a control room as if operating the big screens at the new stadium. The message that he had signed was then superimposed on to the screens. “I’m just excited to keep on the train and see where it can go,” Kane said.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/08/harry-kane-tottenham-new-contract-six-years?CMP=share_btn_tw [ 此帖被羅力亞在2018-06-09 02:31重新編輯 ]
