Former Liverpool and England striker Michael Owen has called Harry Kane ‘nuts’ for joining Bayern Munich two years ago rather than staying at Tottenham to chase the Premier League goalscoring record.
Kane, 32, left his boyhood club Tottenham in the summer of 2023, after a 19-year association with the Lilywhites, moving to the Bundesliga giants as he searched for his first career trophy.
Owen was one of many to criticise Kane at the time of his move as he was on 213 Premier League goals for Spurs, and just 48 away from breaking Alan Shearer’s seemingly unreachable tally.
Despite Kane’s success in Germany since leaving north London, Owen, who was appearing on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast, maintains his disappointment at Kane’s decision to leave the English top flight.
‘Harry Kane is just lethal; he’s a brilliant finisher,’ he started. ‘I disagreed with him going to Germany; I was outspoken about that. I still think he was nuts.
‘You’re on the verge of being the all-time Premier League goal scorer, you’ve got kids that are all in school. I mean, I just couldn’t see it. I don’t see it.’
Two years on from Harry Kane move to Bayern Munich Michael Owen still sees it as ‘nuts’
Owen (left) told the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast that he still believes Kane should have stayed at Tottenham
The former Liverpool striker cited Kane relocating his family (pictured) as one of the reasons he should have remained in London
Despite much criticism, Kane has demonstrated that relocating his life to southern Germany was the right move for his career. The Three Lions captain has hit new goalscoring heights while in Bavaria. Kane has scored at a rate of nearly one goal per game for Bayern, netting 91 times in 100 appearances.
And after a disappointing first season in Germany, going trophyless, he finally secured his first piece of senior silverware last campaign by driving Die Roten back to Bundesliga glory.
While Owen took aim at Kane for moving his family with him, they seemed happy to be by his side when celebrating his first trophy. His wife, Katie Goodland, and three of their four children joined him on the pitch back in May.
‘It’s been a long time coming,’ Kane said at the time, after he had been drenched in beer by teammates. ‘It means more than any of the goalscoring awards, for sure. There’s no secret that there has been this one thing that has been missing from my resume.
‘It was a weight on my shoulders and now it’s been lifted. I’ve had plenty of individual accolades and been close on so many occasions to trophies, but for one reason or another, it hasn’t quite worked.
‘When you go through a season, the ups and downs, the work, the training, all together with the team, with the staff, you, to have this release and have this kind of celebration at the end, I’ve never been able to have that before. It was just so nice to have that moment.’
However, Owen doesn’t believe that winning trophies for Bayern is the same level of accomplishment as becoming the Premier League’s greatest ever scorer, which Kane realistically could have become if he had stayed.
‘If you’re that desperate to win something, then do another year and then go,’ Owen continued. ‘It’s like if you go up and move to Celtic and win the league, you win every year, but there’s no great achievement in that.
Kane was 48 goals shy of Alan Shearer’s Premier League record before he left in 2023
The England captain moved to Bayern to win trophies and secured his first piece of senior silverware last season by winning the Bundesliga
‘A great achievement would have been being the top goal scorer ever in the Premier League. That would have been unbelievable, and he could have won things along the way.
Nevertheless, while Owen, who scored 150 Premier League goals himself – putting him 11th in the all-time list – doesn’t agree with Kane’s move to Munich, he was still full of praise for his footballing ability.
The former Liverpool man added: ‘Anyway, we digress. Harry Kane, I love him. I think he is lethal. He’s got balls of steel under pressure.
‘You’ve got to have a great penalty taker – he is unbelievable. He’s got presence, I do like him, I think he’s been brilliant over the years.’
Listen to the full Rio Meets Michael Owen interview on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
