Former Serie A club tried to sign 20-year-old Harry Kane: ‘There was contact’ | OneFootball

Reports in Italy show how former Serie A club Livorno made an attempt to sign a 20-year-old Harry Kane from Tottenham Hotspur back in the summer of 2013 following their promotion to the top flight at the end of the 2012-13 season.

Which Italian club tried to sign a young Harry Kane from Tottenham?

According to a story reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport, Livorno, who currently compete in Serie D after a series of relegations and a rebranding in 2021, had been in contact with intermediaries in an attempt to sign the future England captain before he had made his Premier League breakthrough at Tottenham.

Kane, at that time, had just returned to Tottenham after a season out on loan, initially with Norwich City, and then with Leicester City in the Championship, where he had scored two goals from 15 appearances.

According to Armando Picchi, sporting director at Livorno at the time, there had been discussions over a potential loan deal with an obligation to buy.

“We sensed something at the time, he had excellent numbers,” Picchi said in a recent interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport.

MUNICH, GERMANY – APRIL 08: Harry Kane of Bayern Munich is challenged by Yann Sommer of FC Internazionale as he makes a save during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Quarter Final First Leg match between FC Bayern München and FC Internazionale Milano at Fussball Arena Muenchen on April 08, 2025 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

“Kane was proposed by an agent. He had scored a couple of goals for Leicester in the Championship, the English Serie B. There was contact, President Spinelli gave it the okay, and we tried to set up the deal for a loan with an option to buy, I don’t remember the figure.”

According to reports from La Gazzetta dello Sport, that figure would have been somewhere in the region of €500,000.

“Livorno had just achieved promotion to Serie A, (Davide) Nicola was in the dugout. We were looking for a young striker to revolve around Paulinho. We liked Kane immediately, but the negotiations faded away.”