Kane’s brilliant goal record falls flat when he hits semi-finals... this is his big chance to change that
The last time harry Kane reached this stage of the Champions League in 2019 he was injured and unable to contribute in the usual way.
With Tottenham trailing 3-0 on aggregate at Ajax, Kane made his way down from his seat in the stands to the dressing room to deliver a half-time pep talk.
Whether the inspiration came from him or boss Mauricio Pochettino, who also spoke, or neither of them, Lucas Moura responded with a hat trick.
Spurs went into the final in Madrid and Kane, after two months out, declared himself fit. Moura went back to the bench. Liverpool won 2-0.
heartbreak for Tottenham who did not expect to win the Champions League but were beginning to wonder if their name was on the cup.
It wasn’t. It rarely is these days. Five years on, Kane is still waiting for the major trophy nobody will begrudge him after a decade of pure excellence. Ten successive seasons scoring 24 goals or more for his club. This, his first at
Bayern Munich, has been his best in terms of goals. he has taken to life in Germany, acquiring the efficiency of Gerd Muller and Karl-heinz Rummenigge while deployed between a pair of lightning-quick wingers.
Two goals in a 2-1 win against eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday took him to 400 senior goals for club and country, and to 42 for Bayern for the season, beyond his previous best single-season club haul of 41 for Spurs in 2017-18.
That was arguably his finest Premier League campaign. The one in which Pep Guardiola dubbed them The harry Kane Team, much to Pochettino’s annoyance.
Kane’s goals fired Tottenham to third place behind the two Manchester clubs. he was beaten to the Golden Boot by Liverpool’s Mo Salah, who also won the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year award with Kane third behind Kevin De Bruyne but the england captain went on to become top scorer at the World Cup in Russia.
It still seems remarkable that he won neither the Footballer of the Year nor the PFA Player of the Year while scoring more Premier League goals than anyone except Alan Shearer.
his reliability worked against him. Kane scoring again. What’s new? Scoring again when every team he plays against comes with a tailored plan to stop him. Goals with his head, on the volley, left foot and right, tap-ins and screamers. Self- belief never wavering.
We have taken him for granted. As a role model and leader as well as a centre forward. FWA members are firmly in the habit of voting for someone who won the title. Seven of the last nine winners have come from the champions. Only Salah bucks the trend in 2018 and 2022. This year’s winner will be revealed this week. Kane cannot win because the award is restricted to those playing in england, although Germany’s version of the same award is open to Germans playing abroad as well as anyone in German football. Manchester City’s Ilkay Gundogan won it last season.
To win Germany’s Footballer of the Year, Kane will have to beat the heroes of Bayer Leverkusen who ended Bayern’s 11 years of Bundesliga domination. They are still unbeaten, with another 97th-minute equaliser on Saturday, and in pursuit of the German Cup and the europa League.
Trophies will surely come to Kane at Bayern despite the mishaps this season. As with Teddy Sheringham, who left Spurs for Manchester United in 1997 and won nothing in his first year at Old Trafford, much to the amusement of those left behind at White hart Lane, and then picked up the Treble in his second.
Kane would prefer to end the wait and get his hands on the Champions League at Wembley in June. That would justify his decision to move to Munich on a quest for major honours.
For Bayern, it would justify the £86million outlay, and they will expect him to lead them into the tie against Real Madrid although his record at the sharp end of cup competitions is disappointing.
he failed to score in three finals for Spurs. In eight semi-final games for them he scored twice, one of them a penalty. There was a winner for england in their euro 2020 semi-final against Denmark, when he converted the rebound from another penalty.
For all his brilliance and ability to influence results, three goals in 14 appearances in semis and finals leaves plenty of room for improvement. What a time for him to change that personal narrative. To lead his team into a Wembley final ahead of the euros in Germany. To tackle the regret of 2019.
PS No English clubs in the last four of the Champions League, but five English players (Kane, Dier, Bellingham, Sancho and Bynoe-Gittens) is as many as appeared at the same stage last season (Walker, Stones, Foden, Grealish and Tomori).