Kane trophy wait goes on despite goals galore for Bayern this season
Spare a thought for Harry Kane. The England striker swapped serial underachievers Tottenham for perennial winners Bayern Munich last summer in the hope of finally getting his hands on some silverware.
Kane’s hopes of ending his trophy jinx were dashed on Wednesday as Real Madrid staged a trademark comeback to beat Bayern 2-1 at the Bernabeu to secure a place in next month’s Uefa Champions League final.
It means Bayern will end a season without a trophy for the first time in 12 years, while Kane’s wait to get his hands on silverware of any kind continues. The 30 year old, who made his senior debut on loan at Leyton Orient in England’s lower leagues in 2011, has yet to win a major honour at club or international level. Prolific in England – he is second in the Premier League’s all-time top-scorer list with 213 – Kane has transferred that goalscoring prowess seamlessly to German football, banging in a staggering 44 goals in 45 matches across competitions.
Thirty-six of those have come in only 32 league games, but Bayern’s hegemony in the Bundesliga was broken by a Bayer Leverkusen side who have yet to taste defeat in any competition this season.
They trail by a staggering 15 points and even second place is far from certain, with Stuttgart looming just two points behind them with two games remaining. Bayern won 11 consecutive league titles from 2013 to 2023 but will finish 2024 empty-handed.
Already the dominant force domestically, the addition of Kane was supposed to expand the German club’s empire into Europe, adding to their six European Cups. Kane’s Champions League contribution for his new team has been significant – eight goals and four assists attest to that – and yet Bayern fell at the semi-final stage, the first time they had gone that far since last winning it in 2020. The Bavarians’ undoing was the concession of two late goals in Madrid.
Thomas Tuchel had removed Kane, who had earlier provided a sumptuous assist for Alphonso Davies to put Bayern ahead in the tie, in the 85th minute. Real striker Joselu would score in the 88th and 91st. Kane’s substitution appeared to change the momentum of the match with Bayern in control but Tuchel insisted the striker was unable to continue. “He played with back pain and he couldn’t keep going, his back froze up,” said Tuchel.
Losing in such heartbreaking fashion to a team who deal almost exclusively in inflicting heartbreak is no real shame.
Far more galling is the way Bayern were dumped out of the German Cup by third-tier Saarbrucken last November.
The cup is always low on Bayern’s list of priorities, but the manner of the defeat, and the level of opposition, would only serve to highlight Bayern’s shortcomings against lesser lights this season. Kane played no part in that embarrassment, and played only 30 minutes – off the bench – in Bayern’s 3-0 Super Cup defeat to RB Leipzig, in his first match for the club. It would be a huge leap to blame Kane for Bayern’s woes or suggest he has upset a winning formula. The mystery of Kane making Bayern better while simultaneously weakening them is a curious one, but does overlook, rather conveniently, several factors.
The indefatigability of Real Madrid and the undeniability of a Leverkusen side wildly overachieving help explain how Bayern missed out on their main objectives but the failures of those around Kane is perhaps more telling.
Bayern’s next highest scorer is Jamal Musiala with 12 while Leroy Sane was the only player to accumulate more league assists than Kane’s eight.
Tuchel’s spat with the Bayern executive branch has played out publicly and he will depart this summer. But despite the disappointment of this season, the club hierarchy will have seen enough from Kane to be confident their investment will pay off in the future with more titles and trophies.
Kane has transferred his goalscoring prowess seamlessly to German football, banging in 44 goals in 45 matches