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Imagine looking back years later and knowing that the kid who once volunteered to be your first goalkeeper in your youth football team has grow up to be one of the world's most feared strikers.

That's what David Bricknell can look back on. The former Ridgeway Rovers manager, now a scout for Tottenham Hotspur, has fond memories of how a young Harry Kane turned up in 1999 as a six-year-old at the Chingford-based youth club - following in the footsteps of David Beckham who had worn the club shirt years before.

"I was the co-manager of Ridgeway Rovers," explained Bricknell. "We put an advert out for kids for an U7 team and we all turned up at Loughton Rugby Club where Ridgeway used to play their mini football.

"We had about ten kids turn up and Harry was one of them. Me and the dad of Nico Yennaris, who has since played for Arsenal [and now Brentford], we ran the team. I asked someone to go in goal and this little kid put his hand up and it was Harry.

"He was a very good goalkeeper, I'm not going to lie. So we carried on like that and then this woman came over and said to me: "He's not a goalie.

(Image: FLORIAN CHOBLET/AFP/Getty Images)

"You think to yourself 'not another parent telling you he's not a goalkeeper', because I had the same with Jordan Archer [former Spurs and now Millwall goalkeeper]. His dad used to tell me he wasn't a goalkeeper as well. He's a very good keeper.

"So I said' ok' and I put Harry out on pitch and to be honest, fair play, he was better than he was in goal."

So that was Kane's fate sealed as a striker after that trial and those early training sessions and the young team soon played their first match.

"I used to keep a book from when my sons were young for whatever team I was running," explained Bricknell. "We were up against Potters Bar in the very first game we played - a friendly.

"I remember it well mostly because Ryan Fredericks, who went on to be at Spurs, was playing for Potters Bar. He and Niko went in for a challenge and Ryan broke his leg or badly injured his ankle. We bought him an Arsenal kit because he supported them. I looked back at my book for that game and we won 8-7 and Harry had scored four goals.

"Harry didn't go in goal for me after the training sessions. He was out there scoring goals. He was with me from November of the first season and then the whole of the next season. He wasn't actually top goalscorer in that full season. Niko was - he beat him by one. Then Harry went to Arsenal as an U9, they nicked both of them."

(Image: Getty Images)

Kane's years at Arsenal are often used as a stick for the Gunners' fans to beat their counterparts with. However, the truth is that he will always be the one who got away after he was soon released by the north London side in red and his old coach revealed that Watford also missed out on securing Kane's services.

"Steve Leonard was the Arsenal scout, he came over, watched them and took Harry and Niko in. Harry was there I think until the U11s and then he got released," he explained.

"Then Harry went back to a different Ridgeway side because his friends were in the other side and then he went to play for a side called Gladstone.

"From there he got picked up by both Tottenham and Watford. He played for Watford against Tottenham in a match and scored a hat-trick and that's when Spurs took him on."

The rest is as they say history. Kane moved through the Spurs academy and after a number of loan moves as a young professional, he eventually made the breakthrough under Mauricio Pochettino.

He has been the Premier League's top goalscorer for the past two seasons, with 86 goals in 126 league appearances.

Kane would even play briefly as a goalkeeper once again for Spurs in 2014 in a Europa League clash with Asteras Tripolis, having scored a hat-trick and then donned the gloves after a Hugo Lloris red card with Tottenham having used all their permitted substitutes. He let in a bobbling free-kick so Spurs fans didn't exactly get to see fine keeper Bricknell remembered.

At the other end of the pitch though Kane is a phenomenon. The 24-year-old is likely to be England's next permanent captain under Gareth Southgate, is second only to Cristiano Ronaldo as the Champions League's top scorer this season and with the north London derby his weekend, Kane has scored six goals in five matches against the rivals who released him all those years ago.

"Harry has exceeded every expectation I had of him. He was a very good goalscorer. You thought he might have a chance, as hard as it is to get through in the professional game. He could score goals. He knew where the goal was, even at a young age," said Bricknell.

"But if you'd have said to me at 11 or even 14, would he go on and have the career he's had I probably would have said 'I doubt it'.

"I think he's deserves so much credit for the application, determination and time spent listening to his coaches at Tottenham, doing extra training. Even at an early age he was doing his own stuff as well, because he wanted to be better."

He added: "He's a lovely kid. He's probably an ideal professional. If you want a blueprint of what you want as a football player, it's probably him. As far as I know he doesn't do all the club scene, he plays golf. He wants to train and be better than he is.

"You know what they said about Ronaldo, how he used to go back and do extra training and to prove that he was better than everyone else. I'm not saying that Harry is in Ronaldo's class but I believe he's got the same mindset.

"He was never the fastest as a kid but suddenly at 21 he became a yard faster than he was at 20. That's down to hard work and bit something extra in on the training ground. That's not natural to suddenly gain a yard of pace."

But what has Pochettino done to bring the best out of his former player - Bricknell believes the answer is quite simple.

"I think he has just told him to go out there and believe himself. If you're a coach and you want to get the best out of players you need to work out what makes them tick. Some people need an arm round them, some a kick up the backside," he explained.

"They all need confidence and that's what he's done. He's got that himself but I reckon the coach has said 'you know what to do, go out there and show everyone how good you are'. If you've got someone telling you that all the time, it's probably made him believe in himself so much more.

"I don't think there's any fantastic techniques. Any footballer, at any level or age, if they lose their confidence they're half the player. When you're playing with confidence you become a much better player."

As a Spurs scout with a brief of looking out for the stars of the future between the ages of six to 16, Bricknell is scouring the local area for the next big thing. He's been with Tottenham for 12 years, having worked for Chelsea before.

"I enjoy it. There's a good player in the U16s called Malachi Walcott, who I like. I saw him playing for Norsemen Youth a couple of years ago and I took him in and he's now an England youth international," he said.

Then there's Marcus Edwards, the much-hyped Spurs teenager currently on loan at Norwich City.

"I saw Marcus as a youngster. I can't take any credit for him though as although I picked him out he was already with Tottenham. He's easy to spot though. There's just something about him.

"I saw him as a seven-year-old and all through the age groups. He was one of those kids you'd actually pay to go and watch. Jack Wilshere as a kid was the same. Josh McEachran was the same. You watch them and you just can see they're levels above."

Bricknell teased the promise of an exciting young prospect at Tottenham who could be better than anyone before him at the club if he keeps his head down and works hard.

"I've got a boy at the club in the U8s, who's been there since he was five. I think he could be even better [than Marcus Edwards]," he said. "If he keeps going he could be the best I've ever seen. The trouble is you never know what's going to happen to them in the next ten years.

"I've been coaching him since he was four and it's like watching a little Lionel Messi. I'm not going to give out his name, but he's unbelievable. The standard for six and seven-year-olds now is phenomenal."

It's clear that Bricknell gets the same buzz now that he did when he first started coaching and scouting young players.

Harry Kane and Tottenham Hotspur will always be thankful for the moment his first youth club manager listened to his mum way back in 1999 and got him to take those gloves off and get out of goal....Arsenal maybe not so much.

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