England manager Gareth Southgate has heaped praised on Harry Kane for his leadership qualities during the World Cup. The 24-year-old was appointed as the Three Lions’ permanent captain ahead of the tournament in Russia and Southgate is pleased that the striker managed to lead by example with his performances.

He said: “I think he's done a fantastic job. He's not really captained his club as such so to show the leadership that he did throughout the tournament for us, I was really pleased and really impressed.He has the respect of the entire group. I think his mindset of what's possible and what's achievable, as he's shown with his own game, filters through to the other players. We always have to have that mentality of wanting to work all the time to get better and he has that mindset in abundance.”

Kane was awarded with the Golden Boot at the World Cup after bagging six goals from his six appearances but he was nevertheless disappointing during the knockout phase where he seemed to be jaded. As such, the Englishman is likely to be offered an extended rest by Tottenham Hotspur and he may probably not return to action until the opening weeks of the Premier League campaign.

Meanwhile, England’s fourth place finish at the World Cup may be regarded as a missed opportunity, considering many of the big nations were ousted prior to the quarter-final stage. Nonetheless, the Three Lions may take positives from the progress at the tournament and Southgate now has the opportunity to work with a much-settled squad ahead of their next big challenge at Euro 2020.
As things stand, England have not won a major trophy at the senior level since the 1966 World Cup and their recent semi-final defeat to Croatia was only the third time ever, they had managed to reach that stage of the tournament.