Goals in chaos, Munich in ecstasy... How Harry Kane signed an express adaptation

As if he didn't miss the comfort of a beautiful house. Until a few days ago, Harry Kane was staying in a hotel room while waiting to find a home in Bavaria. This slight inconvenience was never seen around Säbener Strasse, the Bayern Munich training center, or the Allianz Arena, unlike his devastating smile and the nets which tremble, match after match. Bought for €95 million from Tottenham this summer, Kane is like a fish to water for the Bavarian ogre.

“I feel good, I feel at home here,” he recently told Sky Sport Germany. Everyone welcomed me very well, whether it was the players, the staff, the club or the supporters. I just want to thank them every time I go out on the field.” He's doing well: 22 goals and 7 assists in 17 matches. Unreasonable statistics for an outstanding attacker. “I expected him to be very good, but not at the level he is playing at the moment,” marveled his teammate Jamal Musiala, Bayern leader last season, who found in Kane a relay for take this responsibility.

Nothing very new for the man who was still, until this summer, the man of only one club, Tottenham. At 30 years old, and after a number of collectively frustrating seasons, Kane left with a heavy heart and on very good terms with Spurs, whom he carried on his shoulders for a long time. “For me, it was always clear: what he is capable of doing, he can achieve on any pitch in the world,” said his new coach, Thomas Tuchel, at the beginning of November. But the latter could not imagine that “it works so well”. Even at Bayern Munich, one of the biggest clubs in the world, we have never seen this.

SEE ALSO – Kane's hat-trick including a 50-meter lob during Bayern-Darmstadt on October 28 (8-0)

Last Friday against Cologne (0-1), he became the first player in the history of the Bundesliga to score 18 goals after the first 12 days, erasing Gerd Müller from the shelves. He has already scored more in 12 matches than Robert Lewandowski in his entire first season in Munich (17 in 2014-15). If he keeps this pace, Kane will beat the record for goals in a Bundesliga season (41 by Lewandowski in 2020-21). He is already doing better than Christopher Nkunku and Niclas Füllkrug, joint top scorers in the championship last season with 16 goals each, while we are a third of the way through the current year. Trivialization of the exceptional.

The reasons for such figures are simple. First there is Kane's talent, his sense of positioning, his ease with both feet and his head and his great physical shape. It allows him not only to follow counter-attacks and remain lucid, but also to follow matches: the England captain started all of Bayern's matches in the Bundesliga and the Champions League. The result is an almost perfect record of 15 wins and 2 draws, with a first group place in C1 assured even before the 5th day and the reception in Copenhagen on Wednesday (9 p.m.).

Beyond finishing, Kane is a complete player, best decisive passer in the Premier League in 2020-21 (14). “It’s easier to play alongside him than I thought,” Musiala relishes. He is also a mature striker, who “brought all his experience” to Bayern, appreciates the 37-year-old Bavarian goalkeeper and captain, Manuel Neuer. He’s also “a great person,” praised Tuchel. Compliments which were already raining across the Channel on the top scorer in the history of the English selection (62 goals).

There remains a black spot, and a big one: Harry Kane's record is blank. Tottenham, who have not been English champions since 1961, did no better than 2nd place in 2017 with him. There have been three lost finals with Spurs (League Cup 2015 and 2021, Champions League 2019), and one with England (Euro 2020). Curse ? Some think so. He was unable to avoid Bayern's defeat in the German Super Cup against Leipzig on August 12 (0-3), and did not play in the second round of the German Cup against Saarbrücken (2- 1), 3rd division club.

It was to finally win trophies that Kane said goodbye to Tottenham, of which he remains the top scorer in its history, and joined the powerful Munich collective. The Champions League? Bayern, crowned in 2020, is one of the favorites. The Bundesliga? He is the ten-time reigning champion, but not the current leader, ahead of the astonishing Bayer Leverkusen coached by Xabi Alonso (11 wins, 1 draw). Normally, within a few months, Kane will have corrected the anomaly and will finally celebrate a title. He deserves it, at least once.