Harry Kane - the Unstoppable

Harry Kane is more than just a goal machine who scores and scores and scores. "Of course he scores goals, he scores them brilliantly," says Bayern defender Jonathan Tah . "But what personally motivates me and inspires us all is his counter-pressing. He makes runs in behind, tracks back, and defends. When a player like Harry Kane does that, it simply draws everyone else in."

Vincent Kompany also points out that the 32-year-old Briton is not a classic center forward who simply waits for his scoring opportunity. "He has an incredibly strong physique, which gives him a bit more time than other players," says the FC Bayern Munich coach. "And then, of course, he also has these incredible switches of play."

Kane himself described his playing style in 2024 in an interview with the magazine "Der Spiegel" as follows: "My greatest strength on the pitch is that I use my mind and recognize where spaces might open up. To do this, I pay attention to the movements of the defenders and their direction of gaze."

"A little chubby"

Kane was born in London in 1993 and started playing football at a young age. He almost became a goalkeeper.

"When Harry came to us for a trial at the age of eight, I asked for a volunteer to go in goal, and he did," Dave Bricknell told DW. He was Kane's first coach at the London amateur club Ridgeway Rovers, where David Beckham also learned to play football.

"He was a very good goalkeeper for a boy of that age, and I thought I'd found a goalkeeper, which was fantastic. Then someone said to me, 'He's not a goalkeeper, he plays on the pitch.' So we put him on the pitch, and he scored a lot of goals."

In 2001, Kane moved to the youth academy of Arsenal FC, but was released a year later and returned to Ridgeway Rovers.

"Kane was a bit chubby, not very athletic," said Liam Brady, then head of Arsenal's youth academy, later admitting: "Yes, we made a mistake."

Kane: "I wanted to prove it to everyone"

Kane channeled his frustration into energy. "I believe that a great resilience grew within me back then, which is the foundation of my career. An extremely strong driving force," Kane recalled in an interview with Der Spiegel.

"I wanted to prove to the people at Arsenal that I was good enough. I wanted to prove it to myself. I wanted to prove it to everyone. That desire still burns like a fire inside me."

In 2004, Tottenham Hotspur took him into their youth academy. At 17, he received a professional contract with the traditional London club, and at 18, on August 25, 2011, he made his debut for Spurs' first team.

However, it took some time before he could establish himself as a regular starter at Tottenham. Initially, Kane was repeatedly loaned out – including to lower-league teams.

Between 2011 and 2014, he played not only for Spurs, but also for Leyton Orient, Millwall FC, Norwich City and Leicester City.

It was only in the 2014/2015 Premier League season that Kane made his breakthrough in the Spurs jersey, where he was voted England's best young professional.

Goals, goals, goals

As the son of an Irish immigrant, he had to choose between two national teams. In 2014, Kane made it clear that only the English national team was an option for him.

He made his debut in March 2015. At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, he led the "Three Lions" to fourth place as the youngest team captain to date. With six goals, the Briton was honored with the "Golden Boot" as the top scorer of the World Cup.

Kane has several such trophies to his name. He was the Premier League's top scorer three times (2016, 2017, 2021) and, since his move from Tottenham to Bayern Munich in the summer of 2023, has also been the Bundesliga 's top scorer twice in a row. This season, he surpassed the mark of 100 competitive goals for Bayern.

In 2024, he also won the Golden Boot in both the Champions League and the European Championship. With over 70 goals, Kane is by far the all-time top scorer for the England national team, ahead of football legends Wayne Rooney, Bobby Charlton, and Gary Lineker.

First major title only with Bayern Munich

Only one major title eluded the exceptional striker for a long time. Twice he came close with the English team at the European Championships , finishing second both times.

In the final of the pan-European Euro 2021 against Italy at London's Wembley Stadium, Kane and Co. lost after a penalty shootout, while at Euro 2024 in Germany, England lost to Spain 1:2 .

Kane finished as runner-up in the English Premier League with Tottenham in 2017, but he never quite managed to achieve the ultimate triumph in the league. When Spurs won the Europa League this year, Kane was already playing for Bayern Munich – and finally won the long-awaited first major title of his career with them: the German championship .

High earners at the Munich club

"I'm happy at Bayern Munich," says the Englishman, "and you can see that in the way I play." Kane's family - his wife Katie, their two daughters and two sons - also feels at home in Germany .

Kane doesn't have to worry about money: his annual salary at Bayern is around 25 million euros. This makes him the club's highest earner.

Considering Kane's scoring rate, the money was just as well spent as Bayern's record transfer fee of around €100 million. At least that's what Bayern's CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen thinks: "If someone had told us that Harry would get better season after season, we probably would have paid even more."