It’s Time to Ask Questions About Harry Kane

The English striker has scored frequently since coming to Germany, but not necessarily when it matters.

Harry Kane was the missing piece. The striker that Bayern Munich needed to return to Europe’s pinnacle. In 2023, with the club lacking that killer number nine, winger Serge Gnabry was the club’s top scorer in the Bundesliga. They would only win the league over Borussia Dortmund thanks to having a superior goal difference while exiting the DFB Pokal and Champions League early.

For a post-Lewandowski Bayern, there was really only one target: Harry Kane. The England striker had scored goals for fun in the Premier League and was well on his way to becoming a club legend for Tottenham. However, there was one small gap on his resume: he had zero club trophies.

Kane had tried — and failed — to win a trophy with both Tottenham and England. The Three Lions frequently fell just short in tournaments, while Tottenham has become a running joke for their ability to avoid trophies. During Kane’s time at Spurs, they missed out on a variety of trophies, most memorably losing the Champions League Final to Liverpool and the Premier League to Leicester City.

It took a long time, but finally, in August 2023, Thomas Tuchel and Bayern were able to secure Kane’s signature. It wasn’t cheap — Kane became the club’s highest earner and the Bundesliga record transfer for a reported €100 million — but the high-profile striker would be precisely what the club needed.

Kane would immediately get the chance to break his trophyless streak, with Bayern set to face off against RB Leipzig in the DFL-Supercup. Unfortunately for Kane, the game was more or less decided by the time he came off the bench for his debut in a 3-0 loss. No worries, though — there was still the DFB Pokal, the Bundesliga, and, most importantly, the Champions League.

By November, Bayern was out of the DFB Pokal. The Bavarian giants had walked over Preußen Münster in the opening round before being knocked out in a stunning loss to 3. Liga side FC Saarbrücken in the second round. Kane played neither match, as Bayern expected to win both and decided to give him some rest.

By February, Bayern was essentially out of the Bundesliga title race. Successive losses to undefeated Bayer Leverkusen and decidedly not undefeated VfL Bochum put the club eight points behind Leverkusen — distance they would never make up, losing the league title for the first time since 2012. Kane would still finish as the Bundesliga’s top scorer, bagging 36 goals.

That left one competition left to win: the Champions League. Kane and Bayern would go as far as the semi-finals, where they would lose in heartbreaking — and controversial — fashion to Real Madrid. Kane scored in the first leg but was not on the field when the final whistle blew in the second leg and Bayern were knocked out.

In total, Kane finished his debut season in Munich with 56 G/A. Those are, on paper, Ballon d’Or numbers. Despite this, he finished tenth in the rankings — a whopping 969 points off of winner Rodri. The reason for this is that when you look at where those G/A come from, it’s substantially less impressive. And that has continued this season.

Kane has 57 goals in the Bundesliga. Of those, fourteen are penalties — not that a penalty is guaranteed, but it does take his tally down to a slightly less impressive 43 open-play goals in 52 games. Still good, but not as good as it first seems.

It’s a similar story in the Champions League, where six of his fifteen goals have been penalties — leaving him at just nine goals from open-play in 20 games. When Bayern Munich won the Champions League with Robert Lewandowski, the Polish striker had thirteen from open-play. In ten games.

Next, look at who he has scored against. Kane is only winless against one team in the Bundesliga: Bayer Leverkusen, where he’s failed to win in four attempts. While it’s easy to say Leverkusen has simply been unbeatable, that’s not exactly true. Against Bayern, Leverkusen has looked surprisingly vulnerable at times. Despite this, Kane has been borderline invisible in those games, scoring just once.

And it’s not just that he isn’t scoring — he’s just not getting involved. Against Leverkusen, Kane averages 25.5 touches per game. When he’s playing his favorite Bundesliga opponents, Augsburg and Stuttgart, that number goes up to 31 and 37.67, respectively. Against Stuttgart, he averages 6.3 shots per game and 4.67 against Augsburg. And against Leverkusen? He has four shots. Total. From four games.

It’s not just Leverkusen, either. Kane scored a hat-trick in his first game against Borussia Dortmund but failed to make an impact in his next game against them, a 2-0 loss. He was ineffective in a big loss to Eintracht Frankfurt in December 2023 but bounced back in his next game against them with a brace. However, he failed to score and exited after 72 minutes in a 3-3 draw with an in-form Frankfurt earlier this season.

In theory, that’s five goals in six games against two top Bundesliga opponents. But that’s because they both came in one game each — the hat-trick and the brace. In the other four, he has zero goals, and Bayern has zero wins from those (although, to be fair, in one of those he left after a half-hour with an injury). He’s also simply not been involved in those games. That’s not what Bayern needs against those opponents.

It’s the same story in the Champions League. Kane scored four goals in six knockout games last season against the likes of Lazio, Arsenal, and Real Madrid, helping Bayern reach the semifinals. However, two of those were penalties — against Arsenal and Real Madrid — resulting in zero open-play goals in the club’s final four Champions League games. And, once again, he simply wasn’t very involved.

This year, more than half of his Champions League goals came in the first game — a 9-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb, where he scored four times. Since then, just three goals in seven games, with Bayern losing three of those.

It doesn’t take statistics to know that Kane’s record in these games isn’t great. When watching these, he simply fails to make much of an impact when it matters most. It’s unfortunate and might seem harsh, but it’s true. It’s easy to say his lack of trophies since arriving in Germany is down to the team around him and the competition, but his record doesn’t help.

This isn’t to say that Kane is a bad player, to belittle his time at Bayern, or that he shouldn’t start for Bayern. Kane is an excellent player, and his time at Bayern has been very good. He is also levels above any other striker at the club and has a realistic argument to be made that he is not only one of the best strikers in the world but also one of the best in the 21st century.

However, these final few months of the season will be crucial for his legacy. Kane can continue to score goals, but in the end, if he can’t show up when it matters the most, that will be how he is remembered. With important games coming up in the Bundesliga, Champions League, and Club World Cup, Kane needs to do more: not just for Bayern, but for himself. If that doesn’t happen, it’s best for all parties to consider a change.

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Image is from the Bundesliga website, bundesliga.com.