He may not have played in the match that got it over the line, but Harry Kane has won the first trophy of his professional career as Bayern Munich sealed the 2024-25 Bundesliga title.
It’s over, it’s done. The Harry Kane ‘curse’ has been lifted as the greatest English player of his generation finally secured the first piece of silverware of his career on Sunday at the age of 31.
Although the ‘curse’ still had one final sting in the tail, with Bayern Munich needing Freiburg to do them a favour against Bayer Leverkusen a day after RB Leipzig ruined their party.
With Bayern set to win the title on Saturday holding a 3-2 lead in Leipzig with minutes to go, Yussuf Poulsen’s equaliser deep into added time tied the scores at 3-3 and meant they had to wait another day.
Kane didn’t actually play in the draw, with the England captain absent through suspension. And actually, having done so much of the heavy lifting to no avail through his career to that point, it was arguably fitting that others had to do him the favour this time.
They didn’t have to wait long for the Bundesliga crown, though. Bayer Leverkusen – needing a win to keep the title race going for another week – drew 2-2 at Freiburg on Sunday afternoon. That result meant Bayern could no longer mathematically be caught in their quest for a 34th Bundesliga title.
The success provides Kane with a measure of vindication. Clearly already an all-time great not just in England, but across Europe, the striker had been unable to attain the kind of glory in terms of medals that his abilities deserved, at club or international level.
But his move to Bayern, although something of a surprise at the time, has now yielded success. Whatever happens over the rest of his career, Kane will at least be able to say he won something when he ultimately hangs up his boots.
That might sound bordering on trivial, but for a while, we all had our doubts.
When Kane flew the nest with his Tottenham Hotspur departure in 2023, his move to Bayern felt like more of an obligation than an escape.
He’d held on for so long at his club, hoping he’d be able to enjoy – or bring – success. But having reached the age of 29 and seen Spurs finish in the top four of the Premier League just once in the past four seasons, more and more his hopes resembled a pipedream.
“I felt like this was the time to leave,” he said in a recorded farewell message to Spurs fans in August 2023, before adding: “It’s not a goodbye because you never know how things will pan out in the future, but it’s a thank you and I’ll see you soon.”
That latter message, leaving the door ajar somewhat, will have been perceived by many as hinting at his reluctance to leave. But with it becoming increasingly unconvincing that Spurs were able to match Kane’s ambitions, a move made sense. And broadly speaking, few fans begrudged him trying to enjoy some tangible success elsewhere.
Would there have been the same understanding if he’d joined the sinking ship of Manchester United? Probably not. But in choosing Bayern, a foreign team he had no connection to and where success was practically guaranteed, the purity and simplicity of his motivations were plain to see.
Players go to Bayern to win. And many win a lot.
With time arguably running out in his career, where better to go if you’re aiming to make up for lost time and want to be virtually assured of success? Well, you go to the most dominant side in any of the top five European leagues, of course.
When Kane signed for Bayern, they’d won an unprecedented 11 successive Bundesliga titles – that is the longest spell of top-flight dominance ever in any of the top European leagues, and it’ll retain at least a share of that record for another seven years at a minimum (PSG have won four in a row as of 2024-25).
In fact, Bayern have been so successful in general that Kane had the opportunity to win his first piece of silverware – and the first of his career, let’s not forget – on his debut.
Perfect, it was all written in the stars, right?
Well, Bayern fell behind against RB Leipzig inside three minutes of the 2023 DFL-Supercup, as Dani Olmo slotted home through a crowd of players. The Spaniard then scored a wondergoal on the stroke of half-time, prodding home after spinning away from two defenders with a turn that almost (or should that be Olmo-st?) defied the laws of physics. And finally, five minutes after Kane’s introduction from the bench, Olmo completed his hat-trick and Leipzig won 3-0 win to claim the first trophy of the 2023-24 German season.
Never mind. Even if Bayern had won, there’d undoubtedly have been some cynics saying the DFL-Supercup wasn’t a proper trophy anyway, that it was inconsequential in comparison to the Bundesliga, UEFA Champions League and even the DFB-Pokal. There was plenty more on the horizon, trophies that would feel a bit more legitimate – and the Bundesliga was practically a guarantee anyway, right?
After that disappointment against Leipzig, Bayern did little wrong over the next couple of months in terms of results. Sure, 2-2 draws with Bayer Leverkusen (H) and Leipzig (A) in the Bundesliga weren’t ideal, but it was hardly the stuff of nightmares.
They cruised through their Champions League group, too, albeit with the help of several late goals.
But the first major crack appeared in early November 2023. Bayern faced third-tier Saarbrücken in the second round of the DFB-Pokal and, despite taking a first-half lead via Thomas Müller, they ultimately lost 2-1, a defeat sealed by a dramatic Marcel Gaus winner in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time.
Müller referred to it as a “brutal blow”, but German newspaper BILD went a good deal further.
“Cup shame for Bayern,” read their headline, adding that “Bayern are in total embarrassment, and chaos reigns.”
It was one of the most humiliating defeats in Bayern’s modern history, and a little over a month later, the first wheel fell off in their Bundesliga title defence, too. A dismal 5-1 loss at Eintracht Frankfurt saw their hosts become the first team for 48 years to score five or more goals past Bayern in under an hour. Although at that point the gap to Xabi Alonso’s impressive Bayer Leverkusen was only three points, it was essentially the beginning of the end.
Having not lost any of their first 12 Bundesliga games that season, Bayern would go on to lose eight of their next 22; they last suffered more in a single campaign in 2006-07 (10). Eighteen points ended up being the gap to eventual champions Leverkusen, who became the first team in Bundesliga history to go the whole season unbeaten. But even more damning was the fact Thomas Tuchel’s side finished third behind Stuttgart as well.
A run to the Champions League semi-finals provided something of a distraction but ultimately yielded nothing, and Kane’s first season ended trophyless – Bayern’s last campaign without any silverware had been 2011-12.
Little blame could be apportioned to Kane. After all, his 36 Bundesliga goals set a new record for a player in their debut season, and has only been bettered by two players ever (Robert Lewandowski in 2020-21 and Gerd Müller in 1969-70 and 1971-72).
But the ‘curse’ of Kane was, seemingly, alive and well. In the Wild West of social media, it was agreed only Kane could go to Bayern and win nothing. He’d then be part of the England team that lost to Spain in the Euro 2024 final.
Leverkusen’s success was, apparently, a freak occurrence, an exception to the rule of Bayern’s domination, however. While the Rekordmeister’s road to the 2024-25 title was nowhere near as emphatic as Die Werkself’s in 2023-24, Vincent Kompany’s men have been top since Matchday 3 and sealed their success with two games to spare.
Once again, Kane has led from the front as he has pretty much throughout his incredible career. His 24 goals is five more than anyone else in the Bundesliga this term, meaning he is on course to become the first player in the competition’s history to win the Kicker-Torjägerkanone (the award given to the top scorer) in each of his first two seasons.
Champions League success continues to elude him, but given his misfortune in the trophy stakes until 2024-25, Kane will presumably take whatever he can get his hands on for the time being.
A league title is a good place to start, and while it’s been a long time coming, the wait will surely make the glory that bit sweeter – especially given he’ll be getting doused in Paulaner beer.
The ‘curse’ is broken; Kane has his trophy and vindication.
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Harry Kane Breaks Trophy ‘Curse’ as Bayern Munich Seal Bundesliga Title Opta Analyst.
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