Harry Kane won the 2026 Men's Ballon d'Or!
Many football fans were genuinely happy for him. Some even commented that Kane's win felt like Robert Lewandowski and all the other deserving footballers who had never won the award were finally getting their moment too.
I thought that was quite an intriguing sentiment.
Source: meetunnadkat
But what really got me thinking was my youngest son telling me that he was thrilled Harry Kane won.
Now, I don't know exactly why he was so happy. Maybe he simply likes Kane as a footballer. But knowing my boy and the challenges he faces, particularly with his physical stature, I wonder whether he sees a little bit of himself in Kane's story.
Not Every Child Is a Messi or Lamine Yamal
Let's be realistic. Footballers like Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal are extremely rare. They are exceptional talents who were already attracting attention at a very young age.
Most children who love football are not going to be like them. And that's okay.
My youngest son loves football. He does face challenges with his physical stature, whereby he's considerably smaller than many children his age.
In football, physical stature does matter. Of course, there are smaller players who are technically brilliant, but when you're a child playing against other children who are taller, stronger and faster, the physical differences can be quite obvious.
I'm not going to pretend otherwise. Just like many other children who play the sport, he needs to put in a lot of effort to become better.
But he enjoys football. And as his mother, I think that's a good enough reason to continue supporting his interest.
Harry Kane Didn't Exactly Have a Glorious Start
One of the things I find interesting about Kane's career is that he wasn't always considered a promising footballer.
He was released by Arsenal's academy when he was a young boy. He was also reportedly smaller than many of his teammates during his early years.
Even after joining Tottenham Hotspur, he didn't immediately become a superstar. He went through several loan spells at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City before finally establishing himself at Tottenham.
If you look at his career now, it's easy to forget that there was a time when he wasn't necessarily the player everyone expected to succeed.
You can read about his story on this IG post and this one too.
Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Now that Kane has won the Ballon d'Or, we can look back at his journey and talk about perseverance, determination and hard work.
But imagine being his parents when he was eight or nine years old and Arsenal decided he wasn't good enough for their academy.
At that point, nobody could have known that he would eventually become one of the world's best strikers.
His father apparently encouraged him to keep playing football instead of treating the rejection as the end of the road.
I think that's the part of Kane's story that resonates most with me as a parent.
Because when your child is still young, you really don't know how things will turn out.
Being Smaller Doesn't Mean He Should Have Fewer Opportunities
This is probably the most personal part of the story for me.
Because of my son's growth challenges, I'm very conscious of the fact that he may not be able to compete physically with some of his peers, at least for now. And yes, it does concern me sometimes.
I don't want him to become discouraged simply because other children are bigger or stronger. Neither do I want him to believe that being physically smaller means he's automatically less capable.
But I also have to be realistic.
There will be situations where physical differences put him at a disadvantage. There may be opportunities that he doesn't get, or teams that he doesn't make.
I can't protect him from every disappointment.
What I can do is make sure that I don't become another person who limits him before he's even had the chance to try.
If he wants to play football, let him play. If he needs extra practice, we'll find ways to help him. If he struggles with something, we'll work on it.
And if one day he decides that football is no longer something he wants to pursue, that's fine too.
I don't want to decide his future based on how tall he is today.
Interestingly, Kane has spoken about being one of the smaller players when he was young before going through a growth spurt.
Now, I'm not saying my son will follow the same path. His growth challenges are something we're addressing separately, and every child's development is different.
But it is a useful reminder that children develop differently, physically and in terms of their abilities.
What we see at nine or ten years old isn't necessarily what we'll see at fifteen or twenty.
So yes, I'm happy Harry Kane won the Ballon d'Or too.
Not because I expect my son to follow in his footsteps, but because Kane's story is a reminder that not everyone starts out as the obvious favourite.
And as parents, perhaps we should be a little more patient with children who need more time to find their footing.
After all, we're raising children, not scouting for the next Ballon d'Or winner. Haha.
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