“It was so well deserved because he hasn't had things all his own way. He's had to go round it the hard way. He had to start off the hard way by someone telling him, 'You're not quite good enough, you're going to have to work a lot harder to get to where you want to'.”

Alan Shearer · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-27

Shearer told BBC Radio 5 Live that Kane's Ballon d'Or was well deserved given the difficult path he took to reach the top.