Harry Kane's Bernabeu appearance is nearest he will get to playing for Real Madrid

They both play in white, but there is nothing whiter than white about Harry Kane being heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid. Not on the morning that he is due to face Los Blancos in a key Champions League group stage confrontation.

Coincidence is a word that is scarcely believable when it comes to leaked stories to the media. Especially in Spain, where the heavy hitters of Real Madrid and Barcelona enjoy convivial relationships with a complicit local media.

In return for access to players and favourable reporting, clubs will feed newspaper stories. It is part of the way the world of football works.

Tottenham's visit to Madrid between the two Group H leaders - H for Harry - has apparently turned into an audition for the forward. Or so the story goes as English organs have pounced on stories emanating from Spain a day before the contest. If Kane does well in this match, a £150m bid from Real Madrid could be in the offing next summer is the accepted wisdom.

The Times, The Telegraph and The Mirror all run with the tale that Kane could be on his way to the European champions with the French coach Zinedine Zidane tipping his hat to the England forward on Monday by describing him as the "complete player".

The Times boldly insists that Kane would be valued at more than £200m with Spurs unwilling to sell unless Madrid outstrip the £198m fee Paris Saint-Germain paid to land Neymar from Barcelona this summer.

The only problem with the belief that Kane is destined to end up at Real Madrid is that it can and will only happen if the player pushes for it.

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has watched Madrid plunder his club for Luka Modric for around £30m in 2012 and Gareth Bale for £77 a year later, both winning three Champions Leagues since departing England.

It is the level of quality Spurs aspire to. In this current climate when Spurs are building one the of the world's most modern stadiums at a cost of £800m, he would surely not be willing to sanction a further flogging of the family jewels.

"Gareth was a player we had absolutely no intention of selling as we look to build for the future," said Levy at the time of Bale's sale. "Such has been the attention from Real Madrid and so great is Gareth's desire to join them, that we have taken the view that the player will not be sufficiently committed to our campaign in the current season."

The Tottenham coach Mauricio Pochettino, who Levy wants to stay as manager for 15 years, feels Kane can enjoy a level of career at Spurs that Francesco Totti revelled in at Roma.

At least when Spurs face Madrid on the pitch on Tuesday evening, Levy can see what is going on.

Off it, he does not know who or what agent is speaking to his players. Tapping up comes in many different forms, including newspaper stories handily planted on the day of a match to perhaps unsettle the player's focus.

But it will take more to ruffle Kane's blonde bonce one suspects.

He already looks like a time-honoured tradesman at the age of 24. He does the right things, says the right things and plays the right way. He is captain of his country, and is a modern day Roy of the Rovers, a heroic striker England have been without since Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer.

Unlike Modric and Bale, Kane strikes you as a player who will not be as easily swayed by the prospect of Madrid.

He has been brought the youth ranks at Spurs, is clearly a fan of the club and scores goals for fun in the world's richest league. 84 in his first 124 Premier League appearances is a rate to rival Ronaldo. He washes up at the Bernabeu having scored five times in the Premier League and six in the Champions League while enhancing his England tally to seven in six matches.

He is a manager's dream. And offers more than enough to prompt Madrid's omnipresent president Florentino Perez president drooling.

Unless he wants money, does he really need to leave Tottenham? And can he get more Euros in Spain? Neymar proved by departing Barcelona for PSG that the accepted hegemony in football is changing.

"The most important thing is that Harry is happy at Tottenham and in the future who knows where we'll be?," said Pochettino. "But he enjoys Tottenham, he comes from the academy, he identifies with the club. Only football knows the future."

If Kane does not want to move, Levy will not sell. They don't have to. They don't want to. Whether or not Madrid are bigger is neither here, nor there. In these time of television billions, they are not richer than Spurs.

And you suspect Levy will glean no greater pleasure out of telling Madrid that Kane is outwith their reach after the bad stench that followed the loss of Modric and Bale.

Whatever happens this evening, Kane to be first scorer at 9/2 looks a much more enticing price than the fee it would cost to dislodge him.