Troy Deeney compares himself to Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane

So it is late in the game and the chips are down (or up?) — who you gonna call: Harry Kane or Troy Deeney? Call it confidence, but the 35-year-old Forest Green player-coach and former Watford man is going with himself.

But wait, let him explain. It’s not out of any disrespect to the former Tottenham, now Bayern Munich star striker and England captain. Kane, of course, is well on his way to becoming a legend of the game.

Rather, it’s that every player needs to have a belief in their skills — and Deeney regards his own very particular set of skills as a different kind of asset, at least in certain circumstances. As he explained on a podcast in September:

The tweet went so viral for unfortunate reasons it had to be hit with a Community Note:

This quote is incomplete and missing context. On the podcast, Troy Deeney did compare himself to Harry Kane, but began by saying: “Is Harry Kane a better footballer than Troy Deeney? F*cking absolutely.”

The note references the following clip, where Deeney talks about his conviction that he can outwork anybody — and that he has to, because others are more talented than he is:

So save the hot takes! This is the kind of attitude any professional should be expected to have.

As for Deeney, the striker is a bit of a legend himself: being part of one of the most iconic finishes in semi-recent English footballing memory:

Hogg…Deeney! At FC Bayern, though, fans will have to content themselves with Thomas Müller and Harry Kane — for now.