What do Jonathan Tah, Edmond Tapsoba and Amine Adli have in common since Sunday? One more title than Harry Kane since they won their first career trophy, the Bundesliga, with Bayer Leverkusen. Despite a rich career where he scored 408 goals and delivered 109 goals in 642 matches between his different clubs and the English selection, Harry Kane is followed by failures and the absence of titles during his career. This is also regularly the object of mockery, he who was chambered last Tuesday by Arsenal supporters during the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League (2-2). “Granit Xhaka is at the top of your championship”, intoned some Gunners fans. While his start to his career was marked by two failures in the playoffs, whether in League One with Leyton Orient and in the Championship with Leicester, his black cat status was affirmed with Tottenham. Vice champion of England in 2017, he failed in 2015 and 2021 in the FA Cup final. To top it off, Tottenham played in the 2019 Champions League final. Injured at the end of the campaign and non-existent in the final against Liverpool (2-0 defeat), Harry Kane again failed to convert the try. Same with England with a 4th place at the 2018 World Cup and a defeat in the Euro 2020 final against Italy (1-1, 3-2 on penalties despite his successful attempt). However, between his explosion during the 2014/2015 season and his last season at Tottenham in 2022/2023, he has never scored fewer than 17 goals in the Premier League (four times scoring 25 goals or more) and 27 goals all competitions combined (notably 52 goals scored during the 2017/2018 season).
Left this summer for Bayern Munich, a club which has won the Bundesliga every time since 2013 and which also has two Champions Leagues (2013 and 2020), two UEFA Super Cups (2013 and 2020), two FIFA World Cups. clubs (2013 and 2020), five German Cups (2013, 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2020) and six German Super Cups (2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022) over this period, Harry Kane had a golden opportunity to build a track record. And his Bavarian adventure began with a final against RB Leipzig on the day of his arrival in Germany. During the German Super Cup in which the Bavarians were triple title holders, hope was high for the English striker, but his team was going to suffer a scathing 3-0. Not an end in itself for the 30-year-old who knew other opportunities were coming his way: “I think Bayern Munich is one of the biggest clubs in the world and I have said all along of my career that I wanted to continue to improve and surpass myself to become the best. I think it was the right step to push and test myself at the highest level, that’s why I’m here and I’m looking forward to this challenge. When I think of Bayern Munich, I think of a club which has won a lot of trophies, which has a good culture of winning year after year. However, nothing happened as planned.
Harry Kane piled up the goals for nothing?
Scorer and decisive passer for his second goal against Werder Bremen (4-0), Harry Kane would quickly take his place at the forefront of the Rekordmeister’s attack and brilliantly. A few months later, the Englishman’s individual record is stratospheric with 39 goals and 12 goals in 39 matches in all competitions. Top scorer in the Bundesliga with 32 goals, he is also the top scorer in the Champions League with 7 goals. With 4 hat-tricks, 6 doubles and an involvement in at least one goal in 28 of the 39 matches played by the Bavarian club, Harry Kane lived up to the expectations placed on him. Unfortunately for the right-hander it was not enough to win a title. Left to rest in the German Cup on November 1 against Saarbrücken, he watched from the bench as his team was eliminated (2-1) against a modest third division team. In the Bundesliga, his impact kept Bayern Munich in contention for the title for a while, but Bayer Leverkusen’s dreadful pace shattered Bayern Munich’s hegemony. Relegated sixteen points behind a club which had never won the competition and despite eleven coronations in a row, digestion was difficult for the Bavarians.
The white season is taking shape for the first time since 2012 for the Bavarians and Harry Kane, but one last hope remains with the Champions League. Performing well in this competition where he is the top scorer of this edition (7 goals), Harry Kane was able to carry Bayern Munich in important moments such as in the round of 16 second leg against Lazio (3-0) with a double. However, the survival of the Bavarians depends on him. Against Copenhagen (0-0) and Lazio in the round of 16 first leg (0-1), he neither scored nor delivered an offering and no one was able to take over. Very good in the quarter-final first leg against Arsenal last Tuesday (2-2), he scored and knows that he will once again be one of the major players in the return match. As much more than the individuality Harry Kane who responds, it will be the collective which will make the difference as always in his career. “It was a disappointing season for us in the league. Congratulations to Leverkusen for what they have achieved. We have not reached our best level this season. I want to help the team, whether in the Bundesliga or the Champions League. It’s no secret that this club aims to win the Champions League every season. We have a great chance here, in our stadium, in front of our audience. We want to achieve something big. Personally, I want to help the club, the team and score goals”, he admitted this Tuesday at a press conference. Launched into his last objective with Bayern Munich in this 2023/2024 season, Harry Kane has no room for error otherwise he will have to wait until next season to finally break away from his black cat label… Or else Euro 2024 with England next June and July.
