Hi I’ve been a Spurs fan for nearly half a century and am a long standing One Hotspur member. I’ve never really got involved in the online forum world, but felt that this was time to change that.
This year BBC Sports Personality of the Year is being presented differently. The shortlist of potential winners is not announced ahead of the show, it is announced during the show. It seems almost certain that Harry will be nominated for leading England to their best tournament for decades and for winning the Golden Boot, not to mention his dramatic heroics in the Nations Cup.
Some people are dwelling on the negatives that we didn’t actually win the World Cup, and that Harry’s was a bit of a soft golden boot with three of the goals being ‘only penalties’. To them I’d say regardless of the outcome Harry and the England team gave us a wonderful unforgettable summer with some truly euphoric moments. Who can forget the last minute goal against Tunisia when it looked like we were heading for a disappointing draw? Or the crucial penalty against the cheating Columbians who delayed the kick by three minutes while scuffing up the penalty spot?
I find it amazing that any Englishman can dismiss half his goal tally as being ‘only penalties’ given our record on this front. Imagine stepping up to that spot knowing that the whole world has stopped what it’s doing and all eyes are on you. Imagine the pressure of having the hopes and expectations of your entire nation on your shoulders. It’s a totally different situation to instinctively shooting in the heat of battle. Just ask Messi and look at his penalty conversion rate for his country. Time after time Kane kept his cool and never let us down.
Last year Kane was nominated for SPOTY and came a distant 8th with 18k votes. We didn’t really step up for him last year. Perhaps we felt that nomination was recognition enough and scoring a lot of goals for your club isn’t realistically enough to win SPOTY. Perhaps we thought his time will come. Well his time is now. He is favourite to win and we must get behind him and help him win. Manchester United fans got behind David Beckham and Ryan Giggs when they won SPOTY. If they can do it so can we.
Let’s all spread the word. Get on your facebook on twitter and spread the word. Talk to the people you meet on the train tomorrow on the way to Wembley, or the person sitting next to you in the ground. Last year many people didn’t even know that Harry was nominated.
We need the faithful to vote and vote hard on the night. Voting once isn’t enough. Rugby League showed this in 2015 where they had a clever campaign #buykevapint, which encouraged fans of Kevin Sinnfield to vote 15 times for him, which at 20p a vote was like buying him a virtual pint. This was spectacularly successful and he came 2nd with a staggering 275,000 votes. You get one free vote by registering for BBC which is the least that every Spurs fan should do, but then get your phone out and return some of the love that he has shown us by voting as many times as you can until the phone lines shut.
Kane is an outstanding athlete, a superb role model and someone the country can be truly proud of. And he’s one of our own! He deserves this, lets help him get it, it’s the least we can do.