Harry Kane’s family anxiously waiting to discover his Ballon d’Or fate

England captain Kane is the odds-on favourite for football’s most prestigious individual award after scoring 61 goals for Bayern Munich last season and another 12 for his country.

The winner will be announced at the London Palladium on Monday night, and while Kane would love to know the outcome in advance, he accepts the suspense is part of the occasion.

“I try not to think about it; obviously it is hard not to,” he said. “There are always rumours and stuff flying around so you try to stay away from it.

“I think my wife would prefer to know and my family, it’s very stressful for everyone.

“I can see why they don’t tell people. They want everyone to go, all the big names there and there will be more people watching it if they don’t know so I can understand why.

“From my point of view, of course I’d love to know to just kind of see and not have to wait throughout the whole night.

“But it is their decision, I can’t control that. We’ll have to just enjoy it and try not to stress out too much.”

Kane is bidding to become only the fifth Englishman – and the first in 25 years – to win the Ballon d’Or, following Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan and Michael Owen.

Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal and Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe are also among the contenders.

On Wednesday evening, Kane starred in Bayern’s 2-2 Champions League draw with Arsenal at the Allianz Arena.

The 33-year-old scored his 10th club goal of the campaign from the penalty spot, but the Bundesliga side were denied victory by Declan Rice’s 82nd-minute leveller.

His standout contribution was an inch-perfect assist for left winger Alphonso Davies to cancel out Eberechi Eze’s opener.

“One of my best passes, for sure,” said Kane.

“It was an important moment in the game, being 1-0 down I think getting the goal before half-time helped change the game for us.

“I said to Phonzy (Davies) before the game, playing in that position whenever I get the ball just run because I feel I can find him with his speed and that one obviously worked out perfectly.

“His finish was top, top as well. On his weaker foot, it was nice to see it go in.”

Kane – Tottenham’s all-time record scorer – registered his 16th goal in 23 career outings against Arsenal after Jurrien Timber was punished for handball.

“We’ve had a lot of battles, some highs, some lows amongst those,” he said of facing the Gunners.

“It’s just one of those fixtures. It’s always a good fixture, it’s always a good battle against a lot of (England) team-mates I know as well. It was probably a fair result, so we take it and move on.”