Harry Kane has scored four goals in the Champions League this season after scoring against United and Galatasaray. Photo: Getty Images/James Gill
“Don't worry about the last 10 million,” is how Karl-Heinz Rummenigge described his advice to the Bayern Munich chief executive as he heads to London for the final stages of negotiations to sign Harry Kane in August, which could prove dangerous. approach when communicating with Daniel Levy.
Still, the message was clear: this is a player not worth losing because of the difference. There are very few of them, and even fewer are those who were 29 years old at the time of paying the fee in question. Bayern chairman Rummenigge certainly spoke from a position of strength in an interview late last month with the Westdeutsche Allgemeine newspaper. By that time, Kane had already scored more goals in the Bundesliga than the league's top scorer in the entire previous season.
In terms of allaying concerns about his fee and contract, the England captain did so in record time. He returns to England – and Old Trafford – on Tuesday night as a €100 million gold-plated player with no doubt about his place among Europe's elite.
So far he has scored against Germany's big and small: Borussia Dortmund and Darmstadt; RB Leipzig and Heidenheim; Bayer Leverkusen and Bochum. In the Champions League there were four goals in matches against Galatasaray and, of course, against United.
Bayern&# 39; The team's number nine scored a hat-trick against Borussia Dortmund in November. Photo: Getty Images/Christian Kaspar
But there were no matches against Eintracht Frankfurt in Saturday's extraordinary 5-1 defeat that ended Bayern's unbeaten start to the season. This might have given Erik ten Hag some hope had he not suffered an equally humiliating defeat in the home league himself.
Kane has scored an avalanche of 22 goals for his new club and four for his country, in what is likely to be his highest scoring season yet.
What about his new life? Saturday's result will be a reminder that any defeat at Bayern is seen as something of a crisis, not least one this big. The Bundesliga title, which Bayern have won in 15 of the last 20 seasons, and the domestic cup are expected. However, in Munich itself, players are free to roam the streets without the hassle of those seeking casual interaction with famous footballers. When it comes to achievements on the pitch, Bayern's players must be outstanding to be compared with what came before.
Alexander Salzweger, one of the organizers of the largest fan organization in Bavaria, Club Nr. 12, politely assesses Kane's influence. “We have 124 years of history and you have to do something special to be remembered,” he says. “But after 18 games we have to say, 'Okay, he's doing his job.'”
For Bayern fans, a key aspect of the summer was resolving the goal deficit left by Robert Lewandowski the year before. At 34 years old, Thomas Müller (16 seasons, 237 goals) managed to last this long. Kane's arrival means he rarely starts and there is talk of what Müller's departure from Bayern might look like after 25 years. Lewandowski (eight seasons, 344 goals) has been a towering figure in Bayern history, but he is not the only one.
Salzweger says Kane's record will inevitably be compared with Lewandowski's, as well as with Gerd Müller, the club's all-time top scorer with 563 goals in 15 seasons. Muller was an avid poacher. Salzweger says better comparisons to Kane include Brazil's Giovane Elber (seven seasons, 139 goals) and Mario Mandzukic (two seasons, 48 goals). As for Mandzukic, he says the resemblance to Kane is strong. “He didn't try to be a star, he just did his job on the field and was very calm off it.”
Rummenigge (10 seasons, 217 goals) explained in the same interview that signing Kane was primarily about goals, but not only about goals. Kane's experience was also important – his calm nature and ability to take everything calmly. “We need this player,” were Rummenigge’s last words to Jan-Christian Driesen. “He will be a key player in our entire structure, both on and off the field.”
Now it has become known that the Kane family have found a house in the Munich suburb of Grünwald, a place so expensive that even Bayern II second team players cannot afford to live there. It's an enclave of Bavaria's rich and very rich, including footballers, celebrities and the occasional BMW executive. The local amateur club TSV Grünwald at various times listed Lothar Matthäus and Arjen Robben as coaches of the youth teams in which their children played.
Bayern players attend Oktoberfest in the city center as part of a commercial commitment for the club, which produces legendary photographs of new foreign players in Lederhosen each year, and also for fun. “If you want to find players at Oktoberfest,” Salzweger says, “you need to know where to go and when.” Like thousands of Bayern fans, he is a member of a large, well-run supporters' organization that takes its social responsibilities very seriously. Selfies with the players are much lower on the list of priorities.
Kane enjoying local delicacies at Oktoberfest. Photo: Getty Images/Alexander Hassenstein
What's especially important for Kane, a man of simple tastes that goes beyond scoring a lot of goals, is that the Bavarian countryside has plenty of golf courses. Very few Bayern players chose to live in the city center. Salzweger recalls that Pep Guardiola was a city center resident, as was Bastian Schweinsteiger. Only Leon Goretzka is from the current team. “The locals will treat them like everyone else,” Salzweger says. “People who ask them to take a picture or say, 'Oh my God, it's a football player!' “I can guarantee you that these are tourists.”
Even after Saturday's defeat, Kane comes into the United game with all the pressure on his opponents. Bayern qualified as group winners and United need to win. Whether that earns them a place in the knockout stages of the Champions League or Europa League depends on the outcome of the other group game. Thomas Tuchel could even rest his number nine.
In any case, Kane's presence will bring back memories at Old Trafford of how, in years past, players of his caliber ended up at United.
Many of the great generation of English stars of the 2000s who left their boyhood clubs did so – Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves, formerly of Bayern. That changed long before this summer, although Kane's path underscored the difference.
Partly shaped by Levy's desires and partly by the constraints imposed by their previous spending, United were never serious contenders. Just like there never was a Jude Bellingham.
Kane's choice of Bayern means that only a Champions League title will place him in the pantheon of the club's greatest players, no matter how many he scores. All anyone who knows this quiet, reserved man says is that he enjoys living there with his wife Kate and their four children.
For his final year at Tottenham Hotspur they lived in Hampstead, north London, and are likely to do the same in Grunwald. Their neighbors will probably hardly notice that they are there, although on the field Kane's presence once again proves decisive.
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