Cast an eye over the list of winners of the European Golden Shoe award and you will come across some of the greatest strikers in football’s history, from legends of the past whose mere mention will bring your grandfather to tears, to the modern greats.
The award, given to the highest scorer in European league football each season, was first won by Portugal and Benfica hero Eusebio, while the third edition was won by the legendary German striker Gerd Muller, whose shot was so lethal he was was known as ‘the nation’s Bomber’.
Thierry Henry, Robert Lewandowski and Luis Suarez have won the prestigious award twice, Cristiano Ronaldo lifted it four times, while Lionel Messi has a record six gongs. But the latest winner is a player who has long been knocking on the door of greatness and has finally been let in: Harry Kane.
Kane did not just win the award, he left his rivals in the dust, scoring a sensational 36 goals in the Bundesliga for Bayern Munich, eight more than his closest rival Serhou Guirrassy and nine more in league football than Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland. His timing could not have been better as he heads to the European Championship as the continent’s top scorer and, by extension, will be the best striker at the tournament.
Yet there is still one thing that continues to haunt Kane: his failure to win a single trophy in his career. And it is a subject that will be discussed throughout the tournament and long after unless he can fire England to glory in Germany.
.jpg?resize=640%2C360&ssl=1)
Breaking records for fun
Kane had long been lauded in England for his heroics with Tottenham, but never quite got the same acclaim in Europe. But that has changed dramatically since moving to Bayern. Despite the challenge of moving away from the club he had been at for his entire life and moving abroad, facing cultural and language barriers, he has exceeded all expectations, sending all sorts of records tumbling.
The striker scored on his Bundesliga debut, having set up a goal within his first four minutes on the pitch. After bagging a hat-trick in a 7-0 rout of Bochum in September, he had scored seven goals in his first five games and made the best start to a season in Bayern’s history, surpassing Miroslav Klose, Mario Mandzukic and the legendary Muller. After 10 games, he had 15 Bundesliga goals, toppling the previous record held by Klaus Matischak which had stood for 60 years.
After 11 matches, Kane had scored more goals than the previous season’s top scorers in the Bundesliga, Christopher Nkunku and Niclas Fullkrug. And after bagging back-to-back hat-tricks against Darmstadt and Borussia Dortmund plus a brace against Stuttgart, he became the fastest player ever to reach 20 Bundesliga goals in a season, toppling another 60-year record, this one held by Uwe Seeler.
Kane bettered Erling Haaland by scoring 30 goals after 25 games, with the Norwegian needing 32 games to get to that milestone when he was at Borussia Dortmund. He finished with the fourth-highest goal tally in a season in Bundesliga history, only falling short of Muller’s totals of 38 and 40 in 1969-70 and 1970-71, respectively, as well as Robert Lewandowski’s record of 41 goals in the 2020-21 season.
If it was any consolation, he at least holds the record for the greatest debut season in the league’s history. And there is always next season.
League of his own
Kane will be battling other modern greats for the Golden Boot at Euro 2024, but he can comfortably claim to be the best striker at the tournament. Cristiano Ronaldo is playing his 11th major tournament and has warmed up for it by scoring 35 goals for Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League, but his tally has to be caveated by the fact the league is ranked by Opta as the 27th best in the world. The Bundesliga, by comparison, is second. Ronaldo is also nine years older than Kane, and whilst he would never admit it, he is well past the peak of his powers.
Mbappe is his closest challenger and pound-for-pound a better footballer than Kane, but is mostly considered a wide forward rather than a centre-forward like the Englishman. And Kane contributed to more goals than the Frenchman both in the league and Champions League.
Kane’s like-for-like rivals at the tournament all had poor seasons compared to his remarkable campaign. Romelu Lukaku scored 13 times in Serie A, Alvaro Morata got 15 goals in La Liga, Fullkrug got 12 in the Bundesliga while Rasmus Hojlund finished with 10 Premier League goals.
Aleksandar Mitrovic, who Kane will come up against in England’s opener against Serbia, has had a prolific season, firing Al-Hilal to the Saudi Pro League title with 28 goals, but, as with Ronaldo, that tally is far less impressive than Kane’s.
Missed opportunities
But one thing Kane failed to do, in keeping with the theme of his career, was win a trophy. And while his lack of silverware could have been forgiven at Tottenham, it is most damning that he could not win anything at Bayern.
The Bavarians had not failed to win a trophy since 2012, when Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund were in their pomp and swept to the double. They had won 11 consecutive Bundesliga titles since then, as well as five DFB-Pokals and two Champions Leagues.
The fact Bayern could not win one competition after signing the England captain led to predictable talk that they had been struck by the Kane curse. As with most social media discussions, it has mostly been said with tongues firmly planted in cheeks. Dimitar Berbatov put it best when he said: “Harry Kane curse? F*ck off, that sounds stupid and it’s disrespectful! Football can be f*cking cruel.”
But jokes aside, the fate that befell Kane and Bayern this season was remarkable. He completed his £82 million ($104m) move from Spurs and signed his contract with Bayern on the same day they faced RB Leipzig in the German Super Cup, a competition the club had won six out of the previous seven occasions. But from the bench, Kane watched his side go 2-0 down, conceding a third goal minutes after he had come on to make his debut.
More strange happenings occurred when Bayern played Saarbrucken in the DFB-Pokal. Kane was part of the squad that travelled to the third-division outfit as Thomas Tuchel heavily rotated his team and saw his side throw away the lead and lose to a stoppage-time goal.
Bayern’s 11-year grip on the Bundesliga, meanwhile, came to an emphatic end as Bayer Leverkusen stormed to their first-ever title while remaining unbeaten, hammering the Bavarians 3-0 in February to move five points clear. Xabi Alonso’s side finished with a sensational 90 points, 18 more than Bayern, who ended up finishing third – behind Stuttgart – for the first time since 2012.
The biggest disappointment, though, was the way Bayern exited the Champions League in the semi-finals, taking a 1-0 lead in the second leg at Santiago Bernabeu and holding on to it until the 88th minute, when Real Madrid’s voodoo in the competition set in and substitute Joselu stepped up to win the tie with two goals in four minutes.
Not to blame
But the idea that Kane was responsible for Bayern’s failings is absurd. He was helpless to stop that disaster against Madrid as he had been taken off by Tuchel while his side were 1-0 up, while he played just 27 minutes against Leipzig in the Super Cup and didn’t get on the pitch against Saarbrucken.
Nor could he be blamed for Bayern surrendering the title. With 36 goals and eight assists, he certainly held up his part of the bargain. Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich underperformed in the Bundesliga, while the usually reliable Manuel Neuer was at fault in the Champions League, with a suspect offside call also playing a role in their exit. There is also a sense that Bayern were never the right fit for Tuchel.
Kane’s inability to win a trophy was also used against him when he was at Tottenham, although he undoubtedly left the club in a far better place than when he broke through from their academy in the 2013-14 season. Kane had been the talisman in Spurs’ greatest era since the 1980s, having left a much bigger mark on the club than their previous trophy wins, the League Cups of 1999 and 2008.
He was the main reason they qualified for the Champions League five times, reaching the final in 2019. He departed as Spurs’ all-time top scorer after helping make them one of the most popular teams in the world.
Bouncing back
No Tottenham fan thought Kane was any worse a player for not having won a trophy with them, and nor can any England fan. The striker has been part of the most successful England side since the 1960s, reaching the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup (winning the Golden Boot in the process), being a few penalties away from winning the last European Championship and pushing France all the way at the 2002 World Cup before exiting in the quarter-finals.
Of course, Kane did have to take responsibility for that particular result after ballooning his second penalty of the game over the bar when he had the chance to equalise against the then world champions. Kane did not hide his disappointment and a month later admitted: “I’ll probably remember it for the rest of my life.” And the missed spot-kick in Qatar was on his mind when he spoke to the media after England’s final warm-up game against Iceland.
“Pretty sh*t, wasn’t it?” he said. “In football you are going to have ups and downs on the way. Of course, that was a down for me at the moment, but I think over two years, for club and for country, I have put that to bed and I am just excited for another major tournament.”
Kane sure has done that, taking the brave step to go abroad to play for one of the most demanding clubs in the world and having the best season of his incredible career.
In good company
He completes a scintillating England attack which also features Jude Bellingham, who, in a similar manner, arrived at Real Madrid and immediately conquered. Phil Foden has also had his best season ever, scooping all the personal accolades in England as well as another Premier League title.
Even if Kane is yet to lift a trophy, he will be surrounded by players who have had a taste for success and know how to get over the line. England have an embarrassment of riches in attack, although they were knocked back down to earth by the shock defeat inflicted on them by Iceland in Friday’s final warm-up friendly.
Their injury-ravaged defence and starting the tournament without a natural left-back is another warning sign, but England are not the only team to have disappointed in their preparation games. What matters is what happens in Germany.
“I have said many times to judge us on the tournament form, on the tournament football. Of course, there will be some noise about Friday, but I think there is a lot of optimism from the fans and rightly so,” Kane said. “Ultimately it is down to us to make sure we get it right on the pitch. We have a lot of fantastic players. Players who have had really, really good seasons.”
On an individual level, no player in Europe has had a better season than Kane. Let that be a reminder to anyone who uses his trophy drought as a counter-argument to his quality. For the first time ever, England go into a major tournament boasting the most lethal striker in Europe; that has to count for something.
In addition to their record-breaking No.9, they have a squad overflowing with attacking flair. In other words, they have a real chance of winning a tournament for the first time in 58 years and finally ending Kane’s long quest for a trophy.
