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Harry Kane making his Tottenham debut against Hearts in the Europa League. White Hart Lane, August 2011.

Where are they now? Tottenham’s XI from Harry Kane’s debut in 2011

Joe Sargent •

A lot has changed since Harry Kane made his first-team debut for Tottenham in a Europa League qualifier against Hearts in August 2011.

Kane had spent the second half of the previous season on loan at Leyton Orient, and he did enough to impress Spurs manager Harry Redknapp.

Tottenham’s progression to the Europa League group stage was all but secure following a 5-0 victory in the first leg in Edinburgh.

The first leg win gave Redknapp a perfect opportunity to offer the Spurs academy graduate a chance to shine in the senior set-up.

Kane played the full match on home soil, but he wasted a golden opportunity to mark his first-team bow in style – the forward saw his penalty saved in the first half as the encounter ended goalless.

Banging in goal after goal in the seasons since for the club, it’s fair to say Kane’s misfortune on his big day as a teenage prospect wasn’t a sign of things to come.

We’ve taken a look at the players who featured alongside Spurs’ talisman in the stalemate in August 2011 to see what they’re up to now.

GK – Carlo Cudicini

The goalkeeper joined Tottenham in 2009 following a trophy-laden stay with London rivals Chelsea and spent three seasons at White Hart Lane.

Due to the presence of Heurelho Gomes, Brad Friedel and Hugo Lloris, Cudicini played second-fiddle, making just 37 appearances for the club before linking up with former Spurs team-mate Robbie Keane at LA Galaxy in January 2012.

After hanging up his gloves in 2014, he returned to Chelsea as a club ambassador before working as an assistant under both Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri.

In the summer of 2019, the 48-year-old changed roles to become their loan player technical coach and that job definitely keeps him very busy.

RB – Ryan Fredericks (Niko Kranjcar, ’61)

Fredericks came through the Tottenham academy alongside Kane and was also making his first-team debut for the club in that 0-0 draw with Hearts.

“Harry has surprised a lot of people with the career he has had,” Fredericks said in 2018. “But everyone inside the club and those who trained with him thought he would go right to the top with the work ethic that he had.”

While Kane became a first-team regular at Spurs, the right-back failed to usurp Kyle Walker and was sold to Bristol City in 2015. He later won promotion to the Premier League with Fulham before joining West Ham, where he remains to this day.

Kranjcar fell out of favour following Gareth Bale’s emergence and joined Dynamo Kyiv in 2012 in search of regular first-team minutes.

The 37-year-old retired in 2018 following an injury-plagued spell at Rangers and is now an assistant coach for Croatia’s Under-19s.

CB – Michael Dawson (Younes Kaboul, ’46)

After joining Tottenham from Nottingham Forest in 2005, Dawson made 324 appearances for the club over the following nine years.

The defender was a mainstay in the Tottenham side that qualified for the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history under Redknapp’s stewardship in 2010, and he captained Spurs during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 campaigns.

He had spells at Hull City and Nottingham Forest before retiring in 2021 and returning to Tottenham as a club ambassador.

Kaboul had two stints at Spurs and enjoyed some brilliant moments at the club, including scoring the winner in a 3-2 win over Arsenal in 2010.

The 36-year-old retired at Watford in 2018, and he now runs his own care home for those with mental disabilities in Belgium.

“I have always been someone for equality,” he told Tottenham’s official website. “I have always been a person that wants the best standards of living for everybody, so it is just to help people with disabilities, to make their everyday better.

“What football gave me, it is just to transmit that to them and give them a chance of a better life, really.”

What a guy.

CB – Sebastien Bassong

Bassong joined Tottenham in 2009 and enjoyed a much more memorable debut than Kane, scoring the decisive goal in a 2-1 win against Liverpool.

“Luka’s free-kick came in, the header was perfect and the joy I felt at that moment… it was incredible. My debut, to score the winning goal against Liverpool, it’s just amazing,” Bassong said in 2019.

“All my family were over from France. You know what? I knew something was going to happen, I just didn’t know what. It was beautiful.”

But he only made 13 appearances for Spurs in 2011-12 and moved to Norwich City at the end of the season. The defender later had brief spells with Peterborough United and Greek side Volos before retiring at the end of 2019.

LB – Vedran Corluka

Corluka lost his place in the Spurs side to Kyle Walker in 2011-12 and was loaned to Bayer Leverkusen in January 2012 before joining Lokomotiv Moscow on a permanent deal.

He retired in 2021 after nine seasons with the Russian side and has since taken up a role as assistant manager of the Croatian national team.

RM – Roman Pavlyuchenko

After an impressive Euro 2008 tournament with Russia, Pavlyuchenko was snapped up by Tottenham from Spartak Moscow in a £13.7million deal.

The attacker scored 42 goals in 113 appearances for the Lilywhites before returning to his homeland with Lokomotiv Moscow in 2012. Despite being 40 years old, he still plays professionally for FC Znamya Noginsk.

CM – Tom Carroll

Alongside Kane and Fredericks, Carroll also made his Tottenham debut against Hearts, but he found it difficult to establish himself as a first-team regular.

Loan spells at Derby County, Queens Park Rangers and Swansea City followed before he made a permanent switch to the latter in January 2017.

“Looking back it’s disappointing that I didn’t achieve more for Spurs and really cement my place in the team,” Carroll said in 2020.

“Redknapp gave me my debut and then he’s gone, then AVB [Andre Villas-Boas] comes in and he’s gone. You just have to keep proving yourself to different managers, so in that respect it was very tough.

“I’d played bits and bobs for quite a few managers, but it was getting to that stage where I needed to be starting 15/20 games in the Premier League.”

After spending the 2020-21 season back at QPR, the 29-year-old then dropped down to League One and joined Ipswich Town on a two-year deal.

CM – Jake Livermore (Jake Nicholson, ’76)

Another Tottenham academy graduate, Livermore made 52 appearances for their first team but also had seven loan spells away from White Hart Lane.

He eventually found a home at Hull City before moving on to West Brom in January 2017, and he now captains the Baggies in the Championship.

Nicholson made his one and only Tottenham appearance in that home game against Hearts before being released in 2013.

The 29-year-old’s story is a sad one. He retired from football in 2017 after a spell with semi-professional side Walton Casuals, and we’re not sure what he’s up to five years on.

CM – Tom Huddlestone

Once likened to Franz Beckenbauer by Martin Jol, Huddlestone failed to live up to those comparisons but still made over 200 appearances for Tottenham.

He left for Hull City alongside Livermore in 2013 and spent four years with the Tigers before joining boyhood club Derby County in 2017.

After being a free agent throughout the 2020-21 season, the midfielder returned to Hull City for a second spell in August 2021.

LM – Andros Townsend

A boyhood Tottenham fan, Townsend worked his way through the academy and scored 11 goals in 93 appearances for the first team.

But his Tottenham career came to an end when he shoved fitness coach Nathan Gardiner after a Europa League tie with Anderlecht in 2015.

“I ended up taking my frustrations out on our fitness coach after a match. I was an unused sub that night, and we got into a little dispute, and I pushed him,” Townsend said in 2020. 

“I really regret it, because Spurs will always be my club, and I don’t want the supporters to remember me from that image.”

He joined Newcastle on a permanent deal in January 2016 but left following their relegation at the end of the season and then enjoyed a five-year stint at Crystal Palace.

The 30-year-old is currently in a battle to preserve Premier League status at Everton.

ST – Harry Kane

Not much needs to be said about this man. He’s one of the best players in the world and he only thing missing from a brilliant Spurs career is trophies.

Whether Kane feels he needs to move elsewhere – he did in the summer of 2021 – to win the top honours, we’ll have to wait and see.

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