As Harry Kane acknowledged last September, as he settled into his new life at Bayern Munich, there was certainly a script to be written. The Champions League final was in his home city of London. The European Championship was in Germany. The dream double was on.
“If there’s someone out there writing a movie … I will try and do my best to make it happen,” Kane said on the eve of England’s qualifying tie against Ukraine in Poland. Nobody even mentioned the Bundesliga title to him because Bayern had won 11 in a row and, well, you know …
To listen to Kane now, as he reflects on how part one of it fell apart, is to feel the depths of a competitor’s pain. When he was withdrawn in the 85th minute of the Champions League semi-final second leg at Real Madrid, Bayern were 3-2 up on aggregate, one foot in the final. Then they conceded two goals.
It followed the unravelling of their title challenge, the losses in the German Super Cup and German Cup, too, and that kind of football fan lined up to mock Kane anew. After winning nothing at Tottenham, he had still won nothing and was there not an irony in that the individual trophy he claimed as the Bundesliga’s top scorer – the Torjägerkanone – is essentially a 3D representation of the Arsenal club badge? He has yet to be presented with that. Expect memes.
Kane does not need any extra motivation for the Euros, especially after what happened the last time, but maybe he has got it all the same. There was bullish talk from him as he looked ahead to England’s opening tie against Serbia on Sunday night. He agreed that after the near misses under Gareth Southgate, another at this tournament would not be good enough. “For sure, we are at that stage now where anything other than winning, we’re going to be disappointed,” he said.
Kane made the point that the squad stood apart from previous vintages because of the form that many of the players were taking into the finals. Phil Foden, for example, is the player of the year in England; Jude Bellingham in Spain. Kane also backed himself to win the Golden Boot, which he secured at the 2018 World Cup. “There is no reason why I cannot be the top scorer,” he said. “If we do well, I expect myself to be up there. That confidence is still there.”
It always is. What was different, though, was Kane’s assertion that he felt “respected more as one of the top strikers in the world”. He mentioned how the support he got at away games in Germany from opposition fans was “at an amazing level”. But really he was talking about his treatment from the pundits and the media. Wayne Rooney recently described him as England’s greatest ever international.
It is one thing to score 30 goals in a league season for Spurs, as Kane did twice; another to get 36 for Bayern and win the European Golden Shoe. Only two players have scored more in a single Bundesliga campaign – Gerd Müller (twice) and Robert Lewandowski. Kane added eight more in the Champions League for an overall Bayern return of 44 goals from 45 appearances.
“When you’re at a club like Bayern Munich, that [respect] comes if you have a great season,” Kane said. “Similar to Real Madrid, Barcelona and all the top, top clubs around the world. From that point of view, maybe I have a different kind of aura … from a media or outside point of view, you get looked at in a different light. Which is good for me, because it raises my profile and helps me to really compete to be one of the best players in the world. That’s probably the biggest difference I’ve found.”
Foden and Bellingham are huge figures at this tournament but it was noticeable when England staged their open training session in Jena on Tuesday that it was Kane who heard his name chanted by the local children. He has won friends in Germany with his down-to-earth nature as well as his goals and it is a story of personal growth. Most importantly, he has developed as a player, understanding the game better and what it is to represent a club where winning every week is not an option but an obligation.
“Of course, it was a really tough ending to the season,” Kane said. “The season as a whole didn’t go the way we wanted it to and whenever you go out of a competition like we did in the Champions League, there is a real hunger and desire that burns inside to make sure that the next time, you have a different outcome. Leaving that game in Madrid, it hurt for a while but then you move on and the motivation is now on to the next one.
“I am extremely proud of what I have achieved in my career but I also know that I want to have trophies to show for it. I feel like I’m in a real peak and hopefully for the next four, five years especially, that will be the case. There’s going to be opportunities, starting this summer and then again next year with Bayern Munich. The most important thing is that I don’t lose motivation and I keep trying to push myself and the people around me.”
