Is Bayern Munich suffering from the Harry Kane curse?

Harry Kane moved to Bayern Munich at the start of this season to end his trophy drought and complete a remarkable career with some medals.

He had been a loyal player for Tottenham from the start of his professional career in 2009 until 2023, a remarkable time to spend at a team that never wins trophies.

Spurs were lucky to have found Kane at a time when they needed homegrown heroes, and he ensured that they stayed competitive for several seasons.

With Kane, Spurs began to compete for a top-four spot often, with the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino proving to be a game-changer for the young striker.

After being promoted to the Tottenham first team in 2009, he was sent out on loan for several seasons until 2014, when Pochettino decided to bank on him.

The Argentinian gaffer is one of the most important coaches in Harry Kane’s career, and the England captain would probably have been another mediocre footballer if they had not worked together.

Reputed for developing young talents at the time, Poch moved to Spurs, after a brief but outstanding spell as the gaffer of Southampton. He made Kane believe he could become a world-class striker, and the former Arsenal trainee bought into it.

Kane scored thrice in ten Premier League games in the 2013/2014 season as he began to show promise in the Spurs senior team after different loan spells away from the club.

The Spursy days

From the 2014/2015 season, Kane began to show that he could be the next best goalscorer out of England.

The striker struck 21 times in 34 league games as Spurs finished fifth in the Premier League standings and reached the final of the Carabao Cup.

He began to improve on that and bagged 25 strikes in the 2015/2016 Premier League campaign to fire the Lilywhites to a third-place finish in a season where they competed to win the Premier League title.

That term, most of the top Premier League clubs struggled, and at some point, Spurs and Leicester City were the most in-form clubs in the country, so they occupied the top two spots.

Kane was the leading scorer in the Premier League that year and did all he could to end the campaign as a league champion, but Spurs finished 11 points behind the eventual champions Leceister.

They had lost the Carabao Cup final in 2015 and nearly won the league in 2016, and it seemed success was close for Harry Kane and Spurs, who had not won a trophy since 2008.

The striker was attracting the attention of some of the top clubs in the world but stayed at Spurs, and they reached the final of the Champions League in 2019.

That was yet another remarkable campaign for Poch’s men, with Kane scoring five Champions League goals in nine matches, while bagging 17 more in 28 Premier League matches.

However, Liverpool defeated them in the final of the Champions League, and Spurs suffered yet another heartbreak despite Kane’s brilliant individual record.

He continued to show remarkable form at Spurs and scored 30 Premier League goals in the 2022/2023 season, only for Spurs to finish outside all the European places in England.

Kane scored 280 goals in 435 competitive matches for Tottenham, yet the Englishman could not get his hands on any winners’ medal.

This is a motivating factor behind his decision to ditch his beloved Spurs and move to Bayern Munich in this campaign.

The goal machine

Bayern have been serial winners in Germany and have won the last ten Bundesliga titles. Even when they struggled last term, fortune offered it to them on the final day of the season.

One reason the Bavarians struggled in the last campaign is because they did not have a top striker after failing to replace Robert Lewandowski.

This means they did not have enough goals and vowed to address the issue in the last summer transfer window and delight Bayern Munich tickets holders.

Thomas Tuchel pushed to sign Kane, which was a huge move, considering most successful English players do not leave their country.

In 2021, Kane was keen to move to Manchester City, but Spurs turned down over 100m euros from the Premier League champions.

They were adamant that he was not for sale, but last summer, they could not keep him and sold the 2018 World Cup Golden Boot winner for around the same price they rejected from Manchester City.

Bayern could hardly believe their luck when the transfer went through, and Kane moved to Bavaria in search of team honours as the most expensive signing in Bundesliga history.

In his first few games for Bayern, Kane has confirmed himself as a goal machine and has broken all kinds of records at the club and the Bundesliga.

This includes becoming the first player to score 17 goals in his first 11 games, the highest-scoring Englishman in the Bundesliga, and reaching Robert Lewandowski’s record of the highest goal scored in the first half of the season.

Yet, Kane might end this season without a trophy after Bayer Leverkusen defeated Bayern Munich to open a five-point gap at the top of the Bundesliga table.

Xabi Alonso’s men are not showing signs of stopping soon, and after facing Bayern twice in the league and remaining unbeaten, it is unlikely they will lose the league to their rivals.

The end of Bayern Munich’s dominance

Kane is now set to finish his first season in Germany without a trophy unless Bayern Munich wins the Champions League, which is very unlikely.

The Englishman has goals in him and carries them everywhere he goes, this is supposed to be the icing on the cake for Bayern.

His arrival in Munich was expected to bring back the glory days when Robert Lewandowski scored the goals to ease Bayern into becoming champions of Germany and Europe.

Kane has come from England with the goals, and his individual performances have been fantastic, but it seems clear that Bayern will lose their league title to Bayer Leverkusen.

They are still one of the favourites to win the Champions League, and Kane has four goals from his first seven European games.

However, with the likes of Real Manchester City, PSG and Barcelona, among others, still in the competition, it will be difficult for Tuchel and his boys to win the Champions League.

They have also been knocked out of the German Cup, a competition that should have been easier for them to win with Kane.

It now seems true that Kane may have arrived in Bavaria with the curse he suffered from at Tottenham, who never wins trophies.

If Bayern keeps struggling, the manager will be sacked, and it would be interesting to see if a new coach can help Kane end his individual trophy drought.