Why Harry Kane Wore Different Shirt to England Teammates vs Croatia

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Harry Kane wore a different shirt to the rest of his teammates as England defeated Croatia at the 2026 World Cup on Wednesday afternoon.

The Bayern Munich star, who is one of the contenders to win the Ballon d'Or following a tremendous season for his club, was named in the Three Lions' starting lineup for their opening game of the tournament at Dallas Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Kane hit the back of the net twice in the first half as the two sides went into the break level at 2-2. Kane was again influential in the second half as goals from Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford gave Thomas Tuchel's side a 4-2 victory.

The 32-year-old has now scored 10 goals for England at the World Cup, equalling Gary Lineker’s record.

Kane wore a special patch on his arm during the match against Croatia, and he will continue to don the patch for the remainder of the tournament.

In the 2018 World Cup, he netted six times as England finished fourth. That was enough for him to win the Golden Boot, awarded to the player that scored the most goals in the tournament.

To commemorate that achievement, he was allowed to wear a special golden patch on his sleeve. The patch, located just below the FIFA World Cup logo, is a golden boot with the year '2018' on it.

Only players that have won the Golden Boot at previous World Cup tournaments are permitted to wear the patch.

That means only two other players in this year's tournament are wearing the patch. They are Colombia's James Rodriguez, who won the Golden Boot in 2014, and France star Kylian Mbappe, who scored eight goals in the Qatar World Cup in 2022.

Kane, Rodriguez and Mbappe will continue to wear the sleeve patch for the remainder of the competition.

Kane revealed Tuchel's speech at half-time and praised his side for pulling off a great result. He said, per the Guardian:

“He [Tuchel] told us to take the shackles off, calm down and let’s go. He said what’s the worst that can happen? Show the world who we can be.

“We came out in the second half full gas and they couldn’t live with it, and that’s the level we have to set in every game. The way we controlled the game once we went ahead, we never really looked like we were in danger and then scored on the counterattack.

"We had a spell where we could have scored three or four. Credit to everyone: the first game of the tournament and a great result against a tough side.”

England and Kane return to action on Tuesday, June 23 when they take on Ghana in Boston. A victory will see the Three Lions qualify for the knockout rounds of the competition.

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