Harry Kane and his fiancée Kate Goodland made a special appearance at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday morning. The 25-year-old England and Tottenham striker looked proud as punch as he collected his MBE from Prince William. He awarded the honour for services to football and in recognition of England's semi-final run at the 2018 World Cup in the Queen's 2019 New Year Honours list. Moments before the service, the footballer posed on the steps of the Palace with his partner Kate and his parents, Kim and Patrick.
© Photo: Getty ImagesHarry Kane with his partner and parents
Following the ceremony, Harry revealed he was quite nervous about messing up his part. "I'm so proud, it's a bit out the comfort zone to be off the pitch, but it's a great day for me and my family," he said. "With football you're in your comfort zone, even in front of thousands of people. Here, you don't want to mess anything up." He also praised his teammates for how they handled racist abuse during their win over Montenegro on Monday. "I am just proud of how the boys have handled it," remarked Harry. "When stuff like that happens it's about more than football but the boys focused on their job, didn't let it affect them and it proved the best way of proving those people wrong is by winning the game and scoring goals."
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© Photo: Getty ImagesThe couple are childhood sweethearts
Later on in the day, Harry took to Instagram to post: "A real honour and an enormously proud day for me and my family. A massive thanks to my @england teammates and coaching staff." The sportsman made sure he spent his special day with his childhood sweetheart. Kate has been in a relationship with Harry for over five years and has known him since school. They first met while they were pupils at Chingford Foundation School and they had a celebrity connection from an early age – they were both photographed with David Beckham in 2005 aged just 11 and 12 for the launch of his football academy.
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Harry has previously revealed how lucky he was to have found his love, whom he popped the question to in 2017. "If I was single now and meeting people, you'd never know if they were with you for the right reasons," he said to the Evening Standard. "Is it the money? You'd never really know. So I'm lucky that I've got a childhood sweetheart. She always wanted to do her own thing. She went to university and worked hard. I have a great family, they keep me grounded and they've worked just as hard as me to get me where I am."
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