For most NFL player, the age of 33 is around the time where their careers end, not where it begins. But longtime soccer superstar and NFL fan Harry Kane still dreams of bucking that trend.
In a recent interview, Kane discussed his options for the future once his soccer career declines. He mused that he would look into soccer or NFL football, though believes that football would be the easier option.
“That is something I will try and look at a bit more seriously,” Kane said, via The Athletic. “It all depends on what happens in my career over the next five or six years, the motivation and what I want to do. The NFL is a lot more realistic than the golf one, let’s put it that way.”
Kane mused that he’d even consider pulling double-duty – playing soccer in Major League Soccer on Saturdays and kicking for NFL teams on Sundays.
“Maybe if I am in the MLS in the future or somewhere like that it might be a thing where you could connect the two, with the seasons,” he said.
What are Kane’s Qualifications?
Kane believes that his skill in taking penalty kicks over the past two decades has adequately prepared him for the pressure of kicking game-winning field goals.
“I take penalties and it is a very similar pressure and technique,” Kane said. “If I did that, in terms of training, I would be closer to that more than to any other sport. But as I know, with all elite sports, when you watch it on TV, people make it look easy, and you think it is possible, but that is not always the case. If I was to do it, it is something I would take seriously. I would take six months to a year to try and practice before.”
It might be a tough sell though. Unless Kane is willing to take about a 75-percent pay cut, he might find it hard. Kane currently earns around $26 million per year as a starter for FC Bayern Munich. That’s about as much as the entire value of the four-year contracts for Brandon Aubrey and Chris Boswell, the two highest-paid kickers in the league.
© Eloisa Sanchez-Reuters via Imagn Images.
Although it is worth noting that Aubrey himself is proof that a pro soccer player can make the successful transition into being an NFL star. Aubrey played defender at the youth and college level and spent two years in pro soccer before going into kicking.
But it also took Aubrey several years of dedicated practice before he was able to find a kicking job on the UFL’s Birmingham Stallions, let alone the Dallas Cowboys.
That said, Kane’s current contract is set to end next summer. If he really wants to change careers, he would be better served giving the NFL a try sooner rather than later when he’s truly past his prime.
