Kane spent childhood aiming to imitate Liverpool legend

Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard is a hero to many young players and not least for Reds midfielder Herbie Kane who is on-loan at Doncaster.

I can relate to Herbie Kane. Although I am almost the exact same age as Steven Gerrard-  he is three months older than me – and I spent my entire twenties (and a few years of my thirties) pretending to be the Liverpool captain on terrible football pitches.

This story is not just common for deluded fans but also a whole generation of emerging professional footballers.

Kane is on-loan at Doncaster Rovers in League One and is closer to imitating his hero as I ever have been. The midfielder is drawing attention for the quality of his displays and freely admits it is all in aim to be like Gerrard:

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“He was my idol as a kid. I looked up to him, so him being my manager for the under-19s was great and I tried to get him to help me as much as I could. You could speak to him and approach him like you would any other.”

There was some concern that he wouldn’t sign a new contract at Anfield earlier last month. A number of clubs have been impressed with his commanding performances for Doncaster and were hoping they could capitalize on his contract impasse.

However he put his pen to a new deal at Liverpool that should extend his time on Merseyside while also confirming he will see out the full length of his loan deal with Rovers.

He has chipped in with six goals from midfield this term. If he can recreate that production in the second half of the season that will be a double-digit goal haul from a 20-year-old. That is hugely encouraging and he is hoping it will grab the attention of his manager at Melwood:

“Hopefully people at Liverpool notice that I’m doing well, and hopefully when I come back to Liverpool it will impact it.

“My aim is to come back in the summer and try to make a footprint. I’m hoping I come back in the summer and impress the manager in pre-season.”

Kane will be hoping to follow his former academy pal Trent Alexander-Arnold into the first team and be the next in a long line of Liverpool youth players to become club legends.