Euro 2016: Alan Shearer tells England star Harry Kane to play without fear in European Championship
SunSport meets up with Euro 96 Golden Boot winner and current Three Lions star man
HARRY KANE heads to France for the Euros today dreaming of emulating Alan Shearer, who won the Golden Boot at Euro 96.
Here, England legend Shearer and striker Kane speak to CHARLIE WYETT about the Three Lions’ hopes of glory this summer.
ALAN SHEARER: To be honest, Harry, I don’t think you approach the matches in the Euros differently to any other game.
Your role won’t change. It will be like my role — the main focal point was to score goals.
Things might be tweaked before the different games in terms of the set-pieces.
I now believe you are England’s No 1 striker and will start. The rest will be up to you.
HARRY KANE: If I do start in the tournament, I want to keep that position. I don’t want to rest and be happy.
I want to push on and make sure no one else can take it away from me now.
Scoring goals will help to do that. I am looking forward to it. All the games at the Euros will be difficult.
It is about going out there and staying calm. We want to play with freedom and enjoy it.
We have that with England, where there are a lot of younger players — as well as a few experienced ones — and we all get on well.
We are just out there to work hard and do the best job we can.
SHEARER: What came out of the 3-2 friendly win against Germany, in particular, was that you seemed to play with no fear.
You also have to enjoy your football — that is what you are going to be in for.
For the first time in a long time, there are no superstars in this England team.
It is young and fresh, players realise that if they don’t play well, someone else comes in.
We had Gerrard, Scholes, Lampard and that never really worked.
Players still got into the team but with the youngsters coming through now, there are players battling for spots.
KANE: You enjoy going away with England and meeting up with all your mates.
I played with them at a younger England level, I know their game and they know mine.
This is the next step up. There is no pressure on us, not many expect us to go and win it.
That will help us, as we will just be able to play our football. We will enjoy it.
We know what we want to do and go as far as possible.
We have to put in good performances in all of the games and we will have to beat some of the best teams in Europe.
But why not? There is no reason why we cannot. We have to go out, stay calm and then go and do the job.
SHEARER: No one thought we could win it — but that performance in Germany may have changed a few things. We will see.
KANE: There is nothing we can do about that. Against Germany, some of the England players came off the pitch and said, ‘That was the best game I have ever played for England’.
That is what you want. It’s like what we have at Spurs.
We come off the pitch and say, ‘What a game that was’.
Hopefully that will be the case in the games against Russia, Wales and Slovakia.
SHEARER: Harry, I am sure you will be fresh for the Euros.
We spoke about this when we first met at a Barclays event.
More from Euro 2016
The summers were not the problem for me, it was the months after in August and September when you have only had a few weeks off and you feel a little jaded.
I didn’t think I ever felt tired in a major tournament, whether my first tournament in 1992, 96, 98 or 2000.
But the start of the next season was often tough.
I imagine it might be the same for you. Eventually, something might catch up.
KANE: Possibly. I had that experience during the last season, in terms of not getting the break, as I played at the Under-21 Euros for England last summer.
Maybe there is a little bit of mental tiredness.
We will see how well we do at the Euros and how long I get off.
I know where you are coming from, though.
Hopefully — and most importantly — we will try to do our best and make everyone proud in France.