When Harry Kane went out on loan to Leyton Orient and Millwall at the dawn of his career and felt the chill of the lower leagues, it was in the hope that at some stage of his football life that was to come, he would be lucky enough to experience a day like this Saturday in Bavaria.
When he struggled to find acceptance at Tottenham Hotspur, he played for days like this when Bayern Munich fans sat at the wooden tables outside the famous old Gasthaus Isarthor in the city centre a few hours before the game, gulping back their glasses of Augustiner pilsner, wearing shirts with Kane’s name on the back.
When the first chance of a trophy passed him by as Spurs lost to Chelsea in the 2015 League Cup final, he plugged away in the hope of days like this when Bayern fans poured on to the Metro at Odeonsplatz and began the pilgrimage to the Allianz Arena to watch their team play Borussia Monchengladbach and then lift the Bundesliga shield that they clinched a few days ago.
When he suffered the pain of losing out to Leicester City for the Premier League title when so many thought it was Spurs’ to win in 2016, he returned in the hope of days like this when the final whistle blew at the end of a game and even he, even Kane the ultimate professional, the understated leader, would spend much of the next hour running around the pitch like a happy kid, pitchers of beer in his hands, looking for team-mates to drench and being drenched back. After being the object of so much schadenfreude for so long, nobody could mock him for his lack of trophies any longer.
When he came back from injury to play in the 2019 Champions League final and Spurs lost to Liverpool, he began the climb back towards the summit for days like this when he could gaze around this monument to football dominance, a place steeped in victory, and let the sensations ripple around him and know, at last, that this is what triumph tastes like.
When he was a runner-up again in the Premier League in 2017, this time to Chelsea, he went back to the well for days like this when he gilded Bayern’s day of celebration of their 34th German title with a brilliant instinctive first-half header that put them 1-0 up against Monchengladbach and took his record in German league football to a remarkable 61 goals in 62 games.
Harry Kane has lifted the first trophy of his career after Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga
Striker Kane celebrated the momentous occasion on the pitch with his wife Kate on Saturday
The couple also took in the moment with three of their four children at Munich’s Allianz Arena
He is 31 now and this was the day that England’s captain and record goalscorer lifted the trophy that meant he was a nearly man no longer. This was the day that a shadow fell away from him.
This was the day when one of the greatest players England has ever produced was finally free of the taint of disappointment and failure that has clung to him, with club and country, for so long.
Generations of England players have grown used to their international careers being defined by the failure to emulate the World Cup win of 1966 but many of them have found solace in glories for their clubs. Not Kane. Not until now.
He is a son of the club of Danny Blanchflower, the man who talked so lyrically of football as a glory game, but for Kane, this is the first time that glory has wrapped him in its embrace. He is part of a glory machine here. This match, which Bayern won 2-0 after a late second from Michael Olise, also served as an emotional farewell to Thomas Muller, who was playing his last home game for the club and his 750th in all.
When he was honoured on the pitch before the game, he was presented with a picture that showed him sitting among the 33 trophies he has won in his senior career here. Kane has one to those 33 but he is a part of that history now. He is a champion at last.
This must have tasted particularly sweet for Kane, who came off in added time at the end of the match. He knew his lack of trophies was his career Achilles heel.
He knew, too, that his critics had taken particular glee in the fact that he had arrived at Bayern last season after the German giants had won the title for the previous 11 seasons in succession, only for them promptly to lose the Bun-desliga to Xabi Alonso’s all-conquering Bayer Leverkusen.
Kane’s detractors said he was a jinx but, as he celebrated in the bright evening chill at the Allianz Arena, it was Kane who laughed longest. The fact that Bayern were beaten to the title by Leverkusen last season actually gives Kane’s triumph this season more meaning. If this had been Bayern’s 13th title in a row, it would have made it feel as if Bayern’s wins were automatic, a symptom of a one-team league, something that kept happening whoever pulled on the shirt.
Kane, with trophy in hand, later had alcohol poured over his head in celebration by a team-mate
He took a moment to inspect his new medal as he spoke to team-mate Leon Goretzka (right)
Kane had been elite football’s nearly man before finally ending his long wait for silverware
Instead, Bayern’s failure gave their victory this season context. It was something they had to fight for. And Kane has been germane to Bayern re-establishing their dominance and putting Lever-kusen firmly back in their place.
No one can argue now that Kane’s move to Germany has not been a runaway success. He scored 36 goals in his debut Bundesliga campaign and he has scored 25 more this season, making him, once more, the league’s leading striker. He has scored 80 goals in 89 appearances for Bayern in all competitions.
Only Gerd Muller and Robert Lewandowski, who Kane was effectively signed to replace, have scored more league goals in a single Bundesliga season than Kane did in his first year but there are other records that the England captain has eclipsed.
In April, he became the fastest player to hit 60 goals in the competition, at a rate of a goal a game. That meant he broke the previous record, held by Erling Haaland, by five games. He has added 15 assists to that goals total, too.
Individual accolades are nothing new. He won three Premier League Golden Boots. He won the Golden Boot at the 2018 World Cup. But what happened here on Saturday was different. Careers are measured by what you win with a team.
Team honours are what define you as a footballer and now, to add to all his gleaming boots and his hundreds of goals, Kane has a winner’s medal. Maybe Spurs will follow him across the line in Bilbao in 10 days by winning the Europa League. Kane would love that just as Spurs fans are relishing what he has achieved in Munich.
He ended his day walking down a red carpet across the pitch, and climbing on to a stage that had been hastily erected close to the centre circle. A man in a suit hung a medal around his neck and the announcer yelled out: ‘Harry Kane, Deutsche Meister.’
He stood amongst his team-mates as Muller lifted the shield and then took his turn with it. Every player did it and every time, Kane threw his hands into the air to celebrate, as if he could never get enough of the ritual.
As the celebrations wore on and Kane continued to cheer every player who lifted the shield with the same gusto as the first time, Freddie Mercury’s voice came over the loudspeaker. ‘I’ve done my sentence but committed no crime,’ he sang. ‘I’ve had my share of sand kicked in my face, but I’ve come through.’ Kane is a champion and a shadow has left him.
HARRY’S THE CHAMPION
34 Goals from inside the box
13/13 Penalties scored
3 Goals from outside the box
PS. Kane also registered 10 assists
- 37 goals in 45 games in 2024-25
- 25 Bundesliga goals in 30 games
Right Foot: 25
Left Foot: 4
Header: 8
Hat Tricks: 3
- 11 CL goals in 13 games
- 1 German Cup goal in 2 games
