Harry Kane an England great but must avoid becoming the Colin Montgomerie of football

Harry Kane likened Euro 2024 to a major golf championship earlier in the tournament, but the England captain will not want to become football’s equivalent of Colin Montgomerie as the door opens once again for him to end his wait for a trophy.

Montgomerie was the best golfer never to win any of the four major championships and is perhaps at the top of the list of sport’s nearly men, a position Kane will never want to find himself when he comes to reflect on his career.

It was ahead of the final Group C game against Slovenia that Kane compared England to a golfer in a major tournament, who was being careful not to play themselves out of contention in the early rounds.

But ‘moving day’ is upon us and the world’s best golfers know exactly how and when to peak when the finish line is in sight, something Montgomerie never quite managed to do in the majors and something Kane must show he has learned.

England’s game against Switzerland on Saturday in Dusseldorf will be Kane’s fourth successive quarter-final for his country, having suffered a series of near-misses with his clubs, Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Munich.

“You just get more experienced and understand there’s going to be nerves and pressure,” said Kane. “You deal with that slightly better than how you do earlier on in your career, when it’s either your first or second opportunity.

“But, for me, I’m always someone for whom preparation is a big thing, in my life and career. And I always feel like if I prepare right, then I’ll go into the game with a free mind. Each game is different and a lot of things can happen in football, but you have to be prepared for any situation.

“Over time, I think I’ve learned to cope with those nerves a bit better, knowing I’ve prepared well and the team has prepared well. Now it’s just about going out there and letting the football do the talking. It’s just more experience and it helps you cope with the situation a bit better.”

Kane conceals the scars of his big-game defeats for club and country, but, as reported by Telegraph Sport, Bayern Munich insiders fear the 30-year-old has been carrying the burden of his first trophyless season with the German club.

Bayern lost the German Super Cup to RB Leipzig, were knocked out of the German Cup in the second round to third-division Saarbrucken, and were eliminated from the Champions League by Real Madrid, despite leading when Kane was forced off with a back issue in the 85th minute.

The England heartbreaks are not as raw as those he has suffered with Bayern, but they are still felt by Kane, who said: “I think we have come close and you move on from those emotions, but they are inside still.

“You still remember the pain and what it felt like after the game, so you use it as motivation, as fuel to not be in that situation again. So, we are going to need all our experience and know-how to get through. But there’s enough of us in the team now to learn from those experiences and, obviously, we don’t want to be in those situations again.”

Kane has scored two goals for England at the Euros and has previously faced accusations - most notably from former Tottenham midfielder Jermaine Jenas - that he has failed to produce his best moments when they have been needed most.

It was a couple of months before the World Cup in 2022 that Jenas said: “My biggest issue with Harry Kane, and he’s going to be a god at Spurs when he decides to retire, and he will go down as one of the best players in Premier League history. Finals and big games, I think, are a problem when it comes to what he’s done in those moments”

Kane scored one penalty, but missed another in the quarter-final defeat to France in Qatar. He knows that if another big moment arrives in Dusseldorf, then he must take it and help to take some of the pressure off manager Gareth Southgate.

“I know the boss at times will come under criticism and come under stick,” said Kane. “But, ultimately, it’s us on the pitch, it’s us who have to go out and play the way we want to play and make the difference in vital moments. I think the players feel that.

“We feel like the coach has given us so much and been one of our most successful managers in England’s history. So we need to go out there and repay him with that.

“The important thing is we find a way to get through to the next round. We want to play better and, hopefully, we can do. But there are a lot of different variables in the game and different moments that you have to come through. What we’ve been so good at over the years is the resilience we’ve shown in different moments in different games and against Switzerland will be no different.”