England captain Harry Kane says it’s too soon to know whether he’ll keep playing for his country through the 2030 World Cup after the painful semi-final loss to Argentina.
The defending champions staged a late turnaround in Atlanta to beat Thomas Tuchel’s side 2-1, setting up a Sunday final against Spain.
It was Kane’s second World Cup semi-final defeat in eight years, following a 2-1 loss to Croatia in 2018.
Kane, 32, praised Argentina’s 39-year-old leader Lionel Messi but isn’t sure he’ll still be in the England setup in four years.
“It’s premature to talk about that,” he said, explaining he’ll take things year by year based on how he feels. He called playing for England his greatest pride and joy. He noted that four years is a long time and he’ll be 33 next summer, but Messi shows it’s possible to thrive at 39. He doesn’t want to set limits and is focused on processing another difficult defeat.
Kane has six goals at this World Cup and could still claim the Golden Boot in the third-place match, though both Messi and France’s Kylian Mbappe have eight.
England took the lead in the 55th minute when Anthony Gordon converted from a Morgan Rogers cross.
Late strikes from Enzo Fernandez and, in the second minute of added time, Lautaro Martinez denied the Three Lions a first men’s World Cup final since 1966.
“There isn’t much to say — everyone’s gutted,” Kane admitted.
He said being within 10 minutes of the final only to see it slip away left the squad devastated.
Kane felt England were excellent for the first hour and deserved their lead, but then struggled to retain possession or press effectively, allowing Argentina to build momentum and create chances.
He added that England must figure out how to handle those phases better — an issue that has lingered across the past four or five tournaments.
England now face France in Saturday’s third-place play-off at 22:00 BST, live on the BBC.