Some jokes just write themselves: Harry Kane moved to Bayern Munich to win his first trophy, only for Bayern Munich to have their first trophyless season in 12 years. Perhaps it is irrefutable proof of a curse, that after leaving Tottenham without ending the club’s long wait for silverware, Kane’s arrival in Germany suddenly caused a title-winning machine like Bayern to malfunction beyond recognition.
This, of course, is neither fair or true, but while Kane’s debut campaign at Bayern end with a handful of individual awards and a new personal record for his most goals in a season, the wait for a first major honour of the 30-year-old’s professional career will continue. It may have been unthinkable last summer, but the trophy cabinet remains empty after Real Madrid put an end to Bayern’s Champions League hopes in the semi-finals.
A failed season, then? Kane was asked about the prospect of a trophyless year before facing Arsenal in the quarter-finals and his response was unequivocal. “Of course,” he replied. “We’re expected to win.”
But, for the first time since 2011-12, Bayern have not done that. Real Madrid stunned the German side with their late comeback at the Bernabeu. It will have been especially difficult for Kane, after the England captain was taken off by Thomas Tuchel with Bayern leading. Kane was minutes from Wembley, but could only watch as Joselu come off the bench to send Madrid through with his dramatic double.
The Champions League was Bayern’s final chance of lifting silverware. Their grip on the Bundesliga had already gone, with Bayer Leverkusen ending Bayern’s unprecedented streak of 11 consecutive league titles with five games to spare. There is no German Cup to fall back on, either – defeat to lowly Saarbrucken, in one of the biggest shocks in DFB Pokal history, saw to that in November. With five weeks remaining, Bayern had nothing left to fight for back home, other than pride.
Though, after a humbling few months, there is little of that in Bavaria right now. In European football’s modern era, where wealth across the continent is concentrated among a cartel of elite clubs, Bayern were considered too big to fail. The history of the six-time European champions and the economic advantages they hold over the rest of Germany ensured titles were a formality, where even a down year could end with another Bundesliga crown for ‘FC Hollywood’. For all of their problems on and off the pitch in 2024, Bayern were arguably even worse 12 months ago, but they still won the league when Borussia Dortmund choked on the final day. It summed up Bayern’s sense of inevitability.
For Kane, the end of his new club’s supremacy is a cruel twist in a year which has seen the England captain cement his place as one of the finest strikers in the world. Kane has enjoyed an extraordinary first term, scoring 44 goals in 45 games for Bayern in all competitions, a personal best. His 36 goals in the Bundesliga is already a record for a debut season in Germany. By the end of May, it is likely that only Robert Lewandowski and Gerd Muller – the two most prolific goalscorers in German football history – will have scored more in a single year. Regardless of honours, it is still one of the greatest campaigns by an English player abroad, an unprecedented goalscoring return for a first year on the continent.
But Kane also scored goals in record volumes at Tottenham. It was a desire to win trophies, and the gradual acceptance that it wasn’t going to happen with Spurs, that saw him come round to the idea of leaving his boyhood club. At Bayern, trophies were seen as a near-guarantee.
And yet Kane’s first season came as Bayern have fallen from their dominant position, amid a wider trend of regression that has led to a dramatic decline at the Allianz Arena. There was a warning, perhaps, when Bayern took the decision to sack former goalkeeper and CEO Oliver Kahn and sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic just days after winning the Bundesliga title on goal difference last May. The signing of a superstar like Kane for a club-record €100m briefly appeased the disgruntled support, but it also put more pressure on Tuchel when Bayern were faced with a rising power elsewhere.
It should be said that the stunning success of Xabi Alonso and Bayer Leverkusen has played a more significant part in Bayern’s low. After winning a first Bundesliga title in the club’s 120-year history, Leverkusen are on track to go the entire season unbeaten – a feat not even Bayern have achieved in the history of German football. Even the best Bayern sides may have struggled to keep pace with Leverkusen’s points tally, and a seismic defeat to Alonso’s side in February was symbolic of the shift: Leverkusen were united under Alonso’s leadership and tactical vision while Tuchel’s side were in turmoil, Kane barely having a touch as Bayern’s invincibility slipped and they were trounced 3-0.
Kane will have a new manager to work with after the summer – there is no point in Tuchel carrying on in his ill-fated spell until the end of the season. There may be further changes: Thomas Muller and Manuel Neuer represent the core of the once-dominant side who are past their best. Jamal Musiala, Alphonso Davies and Joshua Kimmich will attract interest from elsewhere and they may prefer their options. A bruised Bayern must now rebuild while Leverkusen, with Alonso committed to staying at the club as they return to the Champions League, could strengthen. For once, Bayern will be the challengers in the title race next year.
The Irony is that after spending 4,369 days at Tottenham without winning a trophy, Kane had the chance to lift silverware on his first day at Bayern. But Kane’s first touch as a Bayern player came as they were already 3-0 down to RB Leipzig in the season-opening German Super Cup final. It may not have counted for much, but it signalled the start of a campaign where Bayern defeats have been infrequent yet catastrophic when they have arrived: to third-tier Saarbrucken, in the 5-1 thrashing at Frankfurt and 3-0 at Leverkusen, against struggling Bochum and newly promoted Heidenheim in April as they surrendered their status as German champions.
All eras come to an end eventually, but the manner of Bayern’s capitulation has shamed a proud club. Perhaps Kane and his goal return saved Bayern from further embarrassment; Musiala, with 13, and Leroy Sane, with 10, are the only other members of the Bayern squad to reach double figures in all competitions. It made his substitution in the Bernabeu all the more inexplicable.
But a unanimous victory in the club’s player of the year awards and a Bundesliga golden boot will hardly be much consolation for Kane when he considers the unthinkable outcome to Bayern’s season, or the new power balance in German football. And, unless the England captain leads his country to Euros glory in Germany this summer, there is now no guarantee that Kane’s trophy drought will come to an end next year, either.
