The words “Harry Kane trophy curse” have haunted not just England fans for a decade, but Tottenham and Bayern Munich supporters now, too. How can a player that good have never won a trophy?
It's unfathomable. The Three Lions skipper is arguably his country's greatest-ever centre-forward, having smashed the all-time scoring record, landed a World Cup Golden Boot and become one of just three players to have ever scored 200 goals in the Premier League. Ability-wise, he's as complete a package as you'd ever want a striker to be. It simply doesn't make sense.
While curses only arguably exist in football, there's a long history of nearly moments for Kane – with the latest coming in Berlin.
The Harry Kane trophy curse begins not at Tottenham… but at Leicester
Tottenham's last trophy came in 2008, in the form of a League Cup. Kane officially became a senior Tottenham player in 2009.
In 2012/13, Kane moved on loan to Norwich City for the first half of the season before spending the second half at Leicester City. With the Foxes chasing promotion, the future England star finds himself in the play-offs, scrapping it out for a shot in the Premier League.
Leicester get a penalty in the final minute against Watford in the play-off semi-final. Manuel Almunia saves from Anthony Knockaert, the Hornets get up the other end of the pitch and Troy Deeney scores an unbelievable last-gasp winner. Kane watches, helpless, from the bench. The hoodoo has begun.
Tottenham title charges under Mauricio Pochettino
Mauricio Pochettino arrives at Tottenham from Southampton. He looks to build his young Spurs side around the talented Kane, along with the likes of Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen, Son Heung-min, Mousa Dembele, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker.
Over the next few years, the term ‘Spursy’ is floated about, with the Lilywhites coming close to surprise Premier League titles. In 2015/16, Kane's former side, Leicester, would romp to a shock league triumph, with Spurs following in close pursuit. The title would be decided by an out-of-sorts Chelsea side, 10th in the table, snatching a 2-2 draw from 2-0 down and Tottenham imploding at Stamford Bridge.
Tottenham would finish third that season behind bitter rivals, Arsenal – yet Kane and Co. would avenge the Gunners the following campaign, competing in another title fight against the Blues. Antonio Conte's side were just too good that season.
This is still a young side at this point. No one expects Kane to be winning trophies – though FA Cup and League Cup exits are somewhat disappointing, given the strength of this team.
It was (so nearly) coming home
Kane excels at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. As England's undisputed superstar, the Tottenham man nabs the Golden Boot, scoring key goals along the way to set up a semi-final against Croatia, and a best showing at the tournament since 1990.
Some will forever blame Kane for not passing to Raheem Sterling in the heat of the moment of England being 1-0 up in that game, instead taking a chance himself. This is incredibly harsh, however, and simply looking to hate on Kane.
And anyway, would England have beaten that flawless French side in the final? Probably not. Still, though, the wait for a trophy goes on for Harry.
Champions League final woe
Tottenham are drifting in the Premier League but in Europe, things are looking rosy. Without their talismanic striker in Kane, Pochettino's side successfully navigate the 2018/19 Champions League knockouts to get all the way to the final, beating Manchester City and Ajax on iconic European nights. Son leads the line wonderfully and a date is set with Liverpool in Madrid.
Kane recovers for the final. Naturally, Pochettino picks his best centre-forward. Of course, Liverpool are awarded a dodgy penalty in the first few seconds of the match.
Spurs lack dynamism in the final, with a few asking whether Kane is really fully fit or was rushed back for the fixture. From this moment onwards, things begin to capitulate for Pochettino, who struggles to overcome the disappointment of losing this showpiece. He's sacked from Tottenham the following autumn.
Pochettino's time in north London is regarded as one of the best that Spurs fans have ever known in terms of the style of play and competing at the very top. Yet he didn't win a single trophy. It still stings for some.
Enter the Special One
Tottenham have the bulk of a team in their prime, including Eriksen, Dele, Kane and Son – and so plump for serial winner Jose Mourinho to lead them to… well, something.
Mourinho has never been at a club and not won a trophy. COVID blights his first season, but when he gets a summer transfer window, he remoulds his squad and things begin to take shape. Kane and Son look phenomenal together, Tanguy Ndombele is a revelation and the omens are incredibly good.
For every season but one in Mourinho's long and illustrious career, his team have finished in the position they were in after 12 matches. Guess where they are after 12 matches…
Instead, Tottenham pick up three wins in the next 13. The club violently veer off track and drop out of the title race, eventually finishing seventh.
And that's not the worst part.
The Mason final
It's now 2021. Mourinho, somehow, leads Tottenham to a League Cup final against Manchester City. Up to this point in his career, he has won every single final he's been in – including against Pep Guardiola, who's set to stand opposite him on the touchline.
Tottenham tend to win trophies in years ending in ‘one’, too. FA Cup wins came in 1921, 1961, 1981 and 1991, the League Cup in 1971, and the club's only two titles were in 1951 and 1961, the latter of which being a Double-winning year.
And yet, the week before the final, Mourinho is sacked.
Kane's old team-mate, Ryan Mason, who has coached just one senior match before, takes charge for the Wembley final. To rub salt in the wounds, Aymeric Laporte tactically fouls Lucas Moura twice and is given just the one yellow card for it. Naturally, he scores the winner.
Football's going Rome
You don't need us to remind you of what happened during the summer of 2021. On (mostly) home soil, England came within a whisker of ending 55 years of hurt.
No one can blame Kane, who buried his penalty in the final shootout and finished the tournament with four goals (despite a slow start). This looked like a golden opportunity – but certainly not the last.
Manchester City want Kane
That summer, Manchester City make Kane one of two major targets from that Euros squad, with Jack Grealish eyed in a £100 million deal, too. Grealish is signed, no problem. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy demands £150m for Kane.
Unsurprisingly, City are reluctant to do a deal for that much. Kane goes on strike (not for long), rejoining new manager Nuno Espirito Santo for the start of the season.
Would Kane have won trophies with Guardiola? It's about as much of a certainty as you can get in football. It would be a very different-looking side to the one that eventually remodelled itself with Erling Haaland up front but given that they've won the title every season since, the FA Cup and the Champions League, it's fair to imagine that at least one of those pots would still have ended up at the Etihad – and Kane would have broken the duck.
Antonio Conte arrives
Nuno leaves. Another serial winner arrives in Antonio Conte.
Again, he's won a lot of trophies. He completely reworks Tottenham into his favoured 3-4-3 and immediately, things start clicking. The Lilywhites finish in the Champions League ahead of Arsenal and are ready for Champions League football.
Tottenham spend huge money in the summer of 2022. Richarlison becomes their record signing and Conte is backed to the hilt. There's talk of this Spurs side being the closest challengers to City and Liverpool… only Conte is sacked in March of the following season.
“Tottenham's story is this,” the furious Italian rants, in a press conference that would see him sacked. “20 years there is the owner and they never won something, but why? The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stays here?”
More World Cup woe
Plenty of England's youth teams have won titles by now. The Lionesses have won the European Championship at Wembley. But the senior men's team can't follow suit.
England are 2-1 down to France in Qatar, in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, when Kane steps up for his second penalty of the game. He blazes it over. It's gutting.
Again, the England captain is ridiculed. No, it's not fair.
A new chapter in Bavaria?
By now, Kane is addressing the lack of trophies in his career himself. With a year left on his contract at Tottenham, he bids farewell to north London, telling fans that he wants to win silverware, and heads to Bayern Munich, who have won the last 11 Bundesliga titles in a row.
In fact, H has the chance to start with a bang. He signs for Bayern the very same day as the German Supercup and is named on the bench for the clash against RB Leipzig.
You guessed it. Leipzig, who have never won the competition before, beat Bayern 3-0, with Dani Olmo netting a hat-trick. The game is practically beyond Kane, anyway, when he appears as a second-half substitute.
Never mind. Plenty of other trophies to win, right?
From bad to wurst
What unfolds in Kane's first season in German football is inexplicable. For the first time in over a decade, Bayern end the season empty-handed – but the manner of the collapse is incredible.
In the DFB-Pokal, Die Roten are knocked out by third-tier Saarbrucken. In the league, Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen triumph to an unbeaten Meisterschale, for the first time in their long history, ending labels of ‘Neverkusen’ once and for all. In the Champions League, they're leading Real Madrid in the Bernabeu and so take off Kane to shore up defensively. Sure enough, Joselu (yes, that one) scored a brace to knock them out.
With Bayern often looking to recruit from down the food chain in such times of crisis, Thomas Tuchel is relieved of duties, as Bayern aim to bring in former midfielder Alonso. Alonso turns them down. Julian Nagelsmann is linked with a return, only to reject the Bavarians, too. Ralf Rangnick, Oliver Glasner and Unai Emery all commit to their teams after links with the job, while Tuchel rejects the chance to stay after all, leaving Bayern to hire recently relegated Vincent Kompany. It's hard to write him off already but Bayern are heading into next season firmly as second-favourites for the title.
And as if things weren't bad enough, Bayern lost on the final day of the season, pushing them into third in the table. No big deal? No, but it denies them the chance of playing in the Supercup next season – another opportunity of silverware for Kane gone.
All the while, Kane won the Golden Boot in Germany last term and was the best centre-forward in Europe. We did say it was unfathomable.
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