Teddy Sheringham: Harry Kane would command transfer fee 'bigger than Neymar' if he left Tottenham

Former Spurs and England striker is in Dubai for an extended training camp with Atletico de Kolkata, the India Super League club he manages.

Teddy Sheringham's new employers are India's league champions, with 54,000 seeing them win the title last season. Christopher Pike / The National

Harry Kane is football’s leading striker, and would command more than Neymar’s world-record transfer fee if Tottenham Hotspur were willing to sell him.

That is the view of Teddy Sheringham, one of Kane’s predecessors up front for Spurs and England.

Kane helped Spurs beat Real Madrid, the Uefa Champions League holders, 3-1 at Wembley on Wednesday night.

He has been linked with a transfer to Madrid, although Florentino Perez, their president, recently suggested the asking price would be prohibitive, predicting Spurs would ask €250m (Dh1.7bn) for him.

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Sheringham says that fee is not an overstatement, suggesting any potential sale would eclipse the €222m Paris St Germain paid Barcelona to secure the services of Neymar.

“I think he is the best centre-forward in the world at the moment, and could go anywhere,” Sheringham said, speaking at Nad Al Sheba Sports Complex on Thursday night.

“That is not an understatement. If he was put up for sale, any club would want him.

“You would be talking the tops [transfer fee], bigger than Neymar. If they wanted to sell him, or if Kane wanted to leave, they would be wanting that kind of money.”

Sheringham has been in Dubai for an extended training camp in his new role as manager of Atletico de Kolkata (ATK), as part of a link up with junior academy It’s Just Football.

The Indian Super League champions are building up to the start of their title defence, starting with a fixture against Kerala Blasters on November 17.

Sheringham has another former Spurs striker, Robbie Keane, as the headline signing in his ATK side.

Keane had two spells at the club, the second of which briefly overlapped with Kane training with the first-team as a 16-year-old youth-team player.

Unlike Keane, who became an established first-team star with his club aged 17, Kane had loan spells at four separate clubs – with mixed effect – before making his name with Spurs.

Keane believes Kane’s rise proves there are different ways to go about reaching the top.

“The improvement he has made over the past three years has been incredible,” Keane said. “It goes to show you don’t have to be thought of as a superstar at 15, 16, 17, and you are automatically going to make it.

“You often see with these young kids, people think they are going to be the next star, then suddenly they fade away.

“He has come through slowly, with hard work and dedication. He went on loan, it wasn’t working for him, he wasn’t playing as much, then he came back.

“Look at where he has got. He is one of the best strikers in the world now.”