Former world-class England striker Gary Lineker’s claim that football is “a simple game of 22 men chasing a ball and Germany always wins in the end” is outdated. On the one hand, the men’s national team of the DFB has thoroughly refuted this Germany cliché with their tournament performances, on the other hand, it’s no longer just the German men who are chasing the ball without success.
Still, the football rivalry between Lineker’s home country and Germany still holds a fascination, at least for English audiences. Chants like “Two World Wars and one World Cup,” written after England’s victory over Germany in the 1966 World Cup final, or tabloid headlines like “Achtung, surrender!” during the European Championships in 1996 have become rare today. But even without war metaphors, German football is a hot topic for the British press for both sporting and historical reasons.
Munich also has beautiful delivery rooms
In this context is the triumphant headline of the riot paper The Sun to see: “Baby Joy – Harry Kane’s baby boy WAS born in England!” Because, also according to the Sun, “Millions of English fans were worried that the future star could play for Germany”. Kane has been playing for FC Bayern since this season and is said to have even combed Munich hospitals for the best delivery room. As proof of the British place of birth is the Sun an Instagram photo of the father of four with his newborn – a British socket can be seen in the background.
Now, the assumption that the child of a world-class athlete will automatically go into the same profession and play at the same level as their father is highly speculative. At first glance, the concern that Henry Edward Kane could one day play for the DFB instead of the English Football Association seems even more far-fetched.
But of course there are cases where footballers had a choice between several national teams. An example is Kane’s clubmate Jamal Musiala. The son of a British-Nigerian father and a German mother was born in Stuttgart but moved to England at the age of seven. He played in several youth teams of the “Three Lions”, but never for the English national team. The national coach at the time, Jogi Löw, finally convinced him to change after all – now Musiala is playing for the German national team. It even happens that siblings appear for different countries. For example, Jérôme Boateng was a German international, while his half-brother Kevin-Prince played for Ghana.
However, it is unlikely that Harry Kane’s youngest, if he had been born in Munich, would have had a similar conflict: on the one hand, his parents are both British, so he would have had to be naturalized separately. On the other hand, his father is the captain of the English national team. In case of doubt, Henry Edward would probably opt for the three lions and against the eagle on the chest for reasons of family tradition.