Martin O'Neill has revealed that a representative for Harry Kane once approached him expressing the striker's interest to play for the Republic of Ireland.
The Ireland manager had admitted last summer that he was chasing up a lead with the Tottenham Hotspur frontman and, despite being offered encouragement by Kane's camp, the player, whose father was born in Galway, insisted in August that he wanted to break into the senior England squad.
Kane is expected to be involved in Roy Hodgson's squad for the matches against Lithuania and Italy later this month after enjoying a breakthrough season, and O'Neill admits that the chase to make him an Ireland player is now over.
When asked if the story was true, O'Neill told the Daily Mail: "Yeah, yeah, it is. I was talking to somebody about this last night and we were just saying that Harry himself always wanted to play for England. Really, it was as simple as that.
"The order of events – though I don't think it's really important anymore – is that initially the agent got in touch and said that he would have a keen interest, and we wanted to go and chase it up.
"But then I noticed in the newspaper where he said he wanted to play for England. And that has remained the same. Someone was even speaking to him recently and that was exactly the same conversation. Fine, if that's the case."
Kane has scored 26 goals in 41 appearances for Spurs this season.
Steven Toplis
