Harry Kane enters career-defining season at Bayern Munich
By Tom Vinall
Harry Kane turned 31 today, the 28th of July 2024. He has scored over 400 career goals. Kane is the Premier League's second-highest scorer ever and England's record goal scorer - by a fair distance - and scored more goals than anyone in their debut Bundesliga season with Bayern Munich.
Yet, now 31, Harry Kane somehow does not have one single team trophy to his name. When Bayern Munich made Kane their record signing last August, everybody assumed the 23/24 season would be the year Kane finally won a trophy. I mean, Bayern had won 11 league titles in a row - why wouldn't they make it 12?
And yet, despite joining a club known for being serial winners, Kane was unable to finally get that illusive first trophy to his name, as Bayern went trophyless for the first time since 2012.
It would be extremely disingenuous to blame Kane for Bayern's failure last season. He scored 36 Bundesliga goals and 8 Champions League goals. He sat on the bench watching his team-mates fall to defeat against a third tier side in the DFB Pokal.
The English striker even had a chance to win a trophy in Germany after all, but once again the trophy alluded him as England lost 2-1 in the Euro 2024 final in Berlin to Spain, courtesy of an 87th-minute winner.
Individually, there were massive expectations of Kane when he signed for Bayern. He came as a three-time Premier League Golden Boot winner, with 213 league goals across nine full seasons for Tottenham Hotspur. He was expected to fill the void of Robert Lewandowski and score goals at an incredible rate.
Even then, Kane himself probably didn't expect him to be quite as good as he was. He scored 21 goals in 15 league games before the winter break, which was one more than Lewandowski had after 15 games of his record-breaking 2020/21 campaign.
Kane scored back-to-back hat-tricks against Darmstadt and Borussia Dortmund. He scored against title winner Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig, all before Christmas. The England international also scored four goals for his country during this run of good form.
The former Spurs striker slightly slowed down after the winter break but still scored 15 Bundesliga goals in just 17 games, including a brace against RB Leipzig.
The England captain played slightly more as a "box 9" for Bayern than he did at Spurs, getting in between the posts regularly and getting himself into goalscoring positions. He still dropped deep consistently to create chances for his teammates.
It would be some ask for Kane to score 36 league goals again in the 24/25 campaign, but there will be surely hope he can get around 30 once more. If he does this, and other players chip in more than they did last season, it will go a long way to helping Bayern regain their Bundesliga throne.
It'll be very exciting to see how Kane and Olise link up in Bavaria. Olise has been on fire for the French national team at the Olympics. The French winger will certainly create an adequate number of chances for Kane. Olise is a ball-to-feet type player, so you probably won't be seeing him run in-behind from Kane's excellent long-range passing, but you would fancy the two to have elite link-up together to create chances in and around the box.
The style of play of Olise could further demonstrate Kane as a "box 9" at Bayern, with the former looking to get crosses and passes into Kane in dangerous areas.
Let's all hope that at 31, Kane can finally breaks his trophy drought.