Ex-Leeds United man Patrick Bamford's history with Harry Kane and 'finally' verdict on appreciation

Patrick Bamford has been part of England squads at Under 19, Under 21 and senior levels that have put him in close contact with Kane. The 1993-born centre forwards have circled one another as team-mates without actually playing together at the same time.

Bamford replaced Kane in a 2012 2-1 Under 19 international win against Czech Republic, in which both men scored. A 1-1 draw with Montenegro saw Bamford come off the pitch before Kane entered the game 14 minutes later. In other youth level games one of the pair played and the other stayed on the bench. And when Bamford finally made his senior breakthrough for his England cap in a 4-0 rout of Andorra, he made way on 62 minutes for Kane to take his place up front.

But Bamford has spent enough time on training grounds to be able to give a qualified opinion on not only how good Kane is, but how his game has changed. Speaking after he received his first senior call-up for the Three Lions in 2021 after impressing in the Premier League for Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds, Bamford described Kane as the 'best striker in the world as an out-and-out number 9.'

Official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026 , Hisense UK, hosted a watch party in the Hisense Lounge at Elland Road this week where we caught up with Kalvin Phillips and Bamford, who told the YEP that Kane could easily operate elsewhere on the pitch.

"If you look at how Benzema kind of matured as he got older and changed the way he played, Harry's kind of been playing like that since he was 26," said Bamford. "He could comfortably play like a holding midfielder I think, in terms of his passing rate and way is with the ball. The way he plays, I think that there's not many nines who can do a bit of everything. He can't really run him behind, but his movements clever, and I think the way he thinks about the game is probably what sets him apart."

The one thing that stuck with Bamford from his St George's Park senior training experience alongside Kane was how consistently the Bayern Munich man struck the ball.

"One thing I noticed was, especially his finishing, it's so crisp, the way I describe it is imagine how one of the best golfers always hits the ball flush, and so every contact was like that, which was impressive," he said.

Kane's World Cup got off to a storming start with his 80th and 81st senior England goals in the win over Croatia. The game Bamford returned to Elland Road to watch and analyse for paying punters should have brought Kane's 82nd but he skied a late left-foot effort from close range. That was a rare glimpse of the centre forward due to his struggles to get into the game, with Ghana sitting so deep and defending their box brilliantly. After the game Thomas Tuchel railed against the suggestion that he might have considered taking his captain off.

While there is no doubt that Kane is a firm favourite with England fans, there have been numerous articles written over the years about him being underappreciated or even disrespected. His Bayern Munich boss Vincent Kompany has said on record that in England Kane's football intelligence was underrated. And Bamford believes that making the move to Germany, where he was won a pair of Bundesliga titles, has removed one layer of criticism faced by Kane.

"It's hard, isn't it? Because I think that everyone picks fault in some way with what he can't do," said Bamford. "I think him going to Bayern Munich has probably helped his cause in terms of what he's achieved there so far. I think if he'd gone his whole career without a trophy, then they'd have held that against him. Hopefully he can help England get one, but I think yeah, people are starting to finally appreciate how good he is."

As for Bamford, he returned to Elland Road with a smile on his face after ticking off 'the main thing' with his move to Sheffield United last November. Originally on a short-term deal, Bamford impressed sufficiently to earn a contract to the summer of 2027. His 13 goals in 29 games endeared him to Blades supporters, along with the hold-up play and physicality that he improved under Bielsa at Leeds. He managed to endear himself to old adversary Chris Wilder, too.

"It was good," he said. "It was. I enjoyed it. That was the main thing. Getting back playing, enjoying football again, and it was comfortable as well, because obviously I didn't have to uproot the family. Chris was really good with me, which obviously nobody saw coming. It was really good, really enjoyed it. Obviously the season itself wasn't particularly good, with the way it finished, we were a bit up and down, but it was still enjoyable."

A 13th-place finish was not on anyone's agenda at Bramall Lane last season but a dreadful start under Ruben Selles and inconsistency during Wilder's third stint as boss kept them out of the play-off picture. A vast improvement will be the aim for 2026/27 and Bamford's preparations are well underway. He has just returned from a private training camp in Majorca and says the work he does away from the training ground has paid dividends, allowing him to play in all but three of the Championship games for which he was eligible last season. But it was the gametime that was most responsible for putting him back on track.

"I think that in the last maybe year and year and a half, I've been able to work specifically with my team, which has helped a lot, and obviously they know what I needed," he said. "Sheffield United have been really accommodating and helpful with the stuff week-to-week. I think for any player, there's no replication, there's nothing that you can kind of substitute for playing regular games. You can be as robust as you want in training but you do need to play game after game and I managed to get that at Sheffield United last season and then it becomes the norm that you're going to be fit. That was important. I get anxious if I go too long without doing anything, so the training camp was nice and I enjoyed doing it."