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Tottenham star Harry Kane is now one of the very best strikers in the world, yet he did have a hard time convincing his peers he would amount to anything as an up and coming prospect.

Former teammate Rafael van der Vaart was especially unimpressed after seeing the England captain train for the first time and recalls telling another colleague how poor he thought the player was, given his discouraging ball control.

Aston Villa's US defender Eric Lichaj (R

The Dutchman, who spent two decent years at Tottenham between 2010-2012, has been made to swallow his words and admitted a few months ago that he is surprised by the striker's insane development after what he used to see in training.

Harry Kane trained a few times with us. I remember his first or second time and I remember telling a teammate: ‘He is so s***…he can’t control the ball'," the 35-year old said back in June.

“And what I want to say is ‘how can somebody develop (so much)?’

“He’s such a good player now...best striker in the world. In the first training sessions I didn’t see that he was learning by doing so I now have so much respect for that.”

Kane has gone on to score a whopping 145 goals in 221 appearances for Tottenham and is probably included in every conversation where top forwards are concerned. He has already scored five goals and assisted another in his first seven appearances for the Londoners this season and was on target with a brace when they played Huddersfield Town on Saturday.

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The forward's tally leaves him as the fifth-highest scorer in Spurs history but he has quite a ways to go to become the club's number one, with Jimmy Greaves still perched there on 266 strikes.