We all know that there are a number of ways to measure the success of a career, but the one way that is most commonly used is trophies.
For that reason, certain players or teams that are known to be excellent can be written off by many due to the lack of trophies that they have won, and Harry Kane is certainly an example of this.
He has spent the majority of his career as one of the best strikers in the world, and at times, perhaps the best. Despite that, he has not won a single major trophy for club or country. This is largely down to playing for Tottenham, a team that last collected silverware – a League Cup – in 2008.
Now that Kane has rocked up at Bayern Munich, the assumption was that it would not take long at all for him to get his first trophy. There were four on offer at the start of the season, but the two easiest to win have already alluded Kane and Bayern Munich, so when will he actually end his trophy drought?
Here are the four club trophies that were available to Kane at the start of the season, and where he stands in each one.
Harry Kane made his debut from the bench with Bayern Munich needing to win just one game of football to secure his first ever trophy. He began as a sub for the Super Cup against RB Leipzig.
This sounds like a superb scenario for the English striker, but it proved not to be. Bayern started the game poorly. Leipzig’s Lois Openda, Dani Olmo, Xavi Simons and Timo Werner were really impressive and they were 2-0 up before Kane was introduced by Thomas Tuchel in the 63rd minute.
Five minutes later, Olmo had completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot and it was clear that even with Kane on the pitch, Bayern were not going to score four times. Kane’s wait for a trophy would go on to the latter stages of the season, at least.
The next most plausible way for Kane to win his first club trophy is the DFB Pokal, Germany’s only domestic cup competition and regarded as being one of the best in Europe. It really matters to the clubs, and the nature of the draws means that it often throws up incredible upsets. If you need a comparison to English football, this is much more like the FA Cup than the Carabao Cup.
Unfortunately for Kane, he has been on the end of one. Having navigated their way past Preussen Munster in the first round, Bayern were drawn to face Saarbrucken, a team from the 3. Bundesliga which is the third tier of German football. This is where the B teams of some top flight clubs play. Not only are Saarbrucken two leagues below Bayern, they are also only 15th in the league after 11 games.
Despite taking the lead early on, Bayern managed to get themselves booted out of the cup as goals in stoppage time of each half, the winner being a great strike in the 96th minute by Marcel Gaus, saw that lead disappear. You may be assuming that Bayern’s starting XI was full of children, but no.
Thomas Muller, Leroy Sane, Joshua Kimmich, Alphonso Davies, Matthijs de Ligt, Kim Min-jae and Manuel Neuer all started the tie. During the game, Jamal Musiala, Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry were all introduced. They came on with half an hour to play.
Kane may be feeling extremely hard done by for missing out on this trophy because he was never brought on by Tuchel and so the matter was out of his hands. The DFB Pokal and the Super Cup are trophies that Bayern expect to win every season, and both are gone.
The hardest trophy to win out of them all, and the one that Kane presumably is most desperate to get his hands on, is the Champions League. The good news is that Bayern are still in this one.
Not only are they still in it, but they look to have very safe passage into the last 16 as they sit at the top of Group A with nine points out of nine. They have five points more than Galatasaray in second and six points more than Manchester United in third. They will almost certainly qualify for the knockouts and will almost certainly do so as group winners.
Beyond that, it is very hard to say how things will end up. Bayern, most recently winners in 2020, are always among the favourites, but there are a handful of teams you would likely back before them to win the whole tournament. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester City and Liverpool are arguably all better than Bayern right now, so it would be impressive if they win it this season.
The one that they always win, it would be quite hideous luck for Kane if he rocked up for the first season since 2011/12 in which Bayern did not win the Bundesliga. As things stand, they are not winning the Bundesliga.
After nine games of the campaign, Bayern find themselves in second. Until last weekend, they were down in third. It is Bayer Leverkusen that are leading the way, two points ahead of the current champions. Under Xabi Alonso, there are many who think they could be the real deal and they will be in the fight until the end.
Of course, the natural assumption for fans is that if Bayern are not top, it must be Borussia Dortmund. They are only two points behind Bayern at the moment and the sides face each other next. Stuttgart are also in the mix right now, but the likelihood is that they will fall away in due course. RB Leipzig in fifth must be considered given the immense quality in that squad.
Bayern still have to be viewed as the favourites to win given they are at least in the mix, they’ve done it umpteen times before and have the best squad to choose from.
This is now Kane’s best chance at winning a trophy this season and, given he has scored 12 goals and got five assists in the league so far, he is doing his bit.
