Could Tottenham and England's Harry Kane Really Win Footballer of the Year?

Could Tottenham and England's Harry Kane Really Win Footballer of the Year?

Each May the walls of the cavernous banqueting suite at the Lancaster London Hotel opposite Hyde Park in London are adorned with large placards of all the former winners of the Football Writers Association Footballer of the Year award. 

The country’s football writers founded the prestigious award in 1948, with its very first recipient being Sir Stanley Matthews.
Since then the Footballer of the Year award has been won by 59 different players, with the roll of honour naturally reading as a list of some of the best talent the English game has ever seen.
Previous winners include Bobby Moore, George Best, Kenny Dalglish, Gary Lineker, Eric Cantona, Thierry Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The last three winners to collect the small trophy of a footballer have been Robin van Persie, Gareth Bale and Luis Suarez.
Each year the winner sits at the head table in this suite at the hotel surrounded by some of these previous winners, either in person sitting next to them or on these placards displayed on all four walls.
At this year's ceremony on May 21, could it be Harry Kane collecting the trophy as the Footballer of the Year for 2015?
At the start of the season, or as recently as November when he hadn’t even started a Premier League game, the notion that Kane, an unheralded and uncapped young player from Tottenham could so soon find himself in such exalted company would have been laughable.
But as we enter the final eight weeks of the season, Kane has a well-earned and realistic chance of becoming Footballer of the Year.
As a member of the Football Writers Association I have a vote, and at the moment I shall be awarding it to Kane.
Kane has been the story of the season, a player who has emerged from the shadows at Tottenham to outscore every expensive international superstar in the Premier League, score just 79 seconds into his England debut and act as a beacon of hope to young English players.
It is Kane’s impressive stack of goals that deserves recognition, and at this stage of the season he already has 29 from 43 appearances.
He is the joint leading scorer in the Premier League alongside Diego Costa. They each have 19 goals, though the Tottenham man has scored his total from three fewer starts.
He has scored big, important goals too, and none more so than his two in the 5-3 win over Chelsea on New Year’s Day and his brace against Arsenal in a 2-1 win in February.
He has achieved all of this in his first proper season, but one in which he still didn’t start a league game until November.
Though Kane first appeared for Tottenham in the Europa League as far back as 2011, he remained on the fringe of the first team and had loan spells to Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester City.

Tim Ireland/Associated Press

It was less than a year ago that Kane actually made his first Premier League start, making his success this season even more impressive.
Kane’s sheer volume of goals can’t be ignored, but he is so much more than just an out-and-out goalscorer.
I was at White Hart Lane to see him face Manchester United in December, a game that would finish goalless, but Kane most impressed me with what he could do with the ball and how he helped his team-mates.
In the second half, Kane received the ball near the half-way line; he was on his own, surrounded by three United defenders, but without any support he still didn’t panic or play safe.
Instead he expertly protected the ball as he advanced all the way to the edge of the United penalty area before deftly playing an exquisitely weighted defence-spillting pass through to Ryan Mason, who should have scored but blazed his shot over the crossbar. 
Beyond Kane, who else has enjoyed a stellar season and deserves to be in contention to be the Footballer of the Year?
At the moment, the strongest challenger to Kane is Manchester United’s transformed Spanish goalkeeper David De Gea.
It is rare for a goalkeeper to be Footballer of the Year; the last one was 30 years ago when the FWA so named Everton’s Neville Southall.
But De Gea would be a worthy winner after a season in which he has kept his side in the top four with a series of incredible saves.
With virtually any other keeper between the posts at Old Trafford United would be plumbing the depths of seventh again, but De Gea has rescued them time and again. 
It seems certain Chelsea will be Premier League champions, but the Footballer of the Year is unlikely to be found at Stamford Bridge this season.
At this stage Diego Costa, John Terry, Nemanja Matic and especially Eden Hazard have all contributed, but none of them is an outstanding candidate who deserves to deny Kane.
There have also been thrilling glimpses of form from both Sergio Aguero and Alexis Sanchez, but they have both faded in the latter part of the season.
It is true there are still eight more games in the Premier League, enough time for another player to stake his claim for the award.
But at this stage I believe Kane should keep May 21 clear in his diary, send his best suit to the dry cleaners and prepare an acceptance speech.