It is late in Munich, approaching midnight, when Harry Kane appears. The nondescript, windowless TV interview room below the Allianz Arena could not be more of a contrast to the giddy, beer-soaked, firework-lit riot of celebration going on outside as Bayern Munich savoura 34th league title. There’s also something different about Kane,and it’s not just the gold medal.
The Kane visage that usually accompanies him at the end of a cup final, that little-boy-lost look of overwhelming disappointment, is gone. You cannot help but notice the broad grin, the relaxed body language and the tactile ease in the greeting, a man intoxicated by euphoria. “It’s been a long night,” he says, beaming. “And it’s just the beginning.”
Thomas Müller, who has been playinghis last home game after 25 years at Bayern, is hosting a late-night soiree in one of Munich’s more fashionable bars to which Kane is invited. First, though, he will be rejoining his wife, Katie, and three of his four children, who have just been celebrating with him on the pitch following Bayern’s 2-0 win against Borussia Mönchengladbach, alongside Tim Sherwood, the coach who gave him his chance at Tottenham, and John McDermott, now the Football Association technical director but previously Tottenham’s head of academy. Both have flown in for the evening. It is typical Kane wants to share this moment with fellow travellers on what has been a very long journey.
There is no player in the modern age who has been as good as Kane and won nothing. Of course there have been extraordinary individual goalscoring awards, World Cup and Premier League golden boots, and the BundesligaTorjägerkanone, the German equivalent. Yet never a club trophy. “So many jokes, so many sneers” is a lyric that could have been written for Kane, as well as the England team, given the Euro, Champions League and League Cup finals where he has had to stand manfully applauding the victors while staring glumly at another losers’ medal.
Kane’s 71 goals and counting for England won’t be beaten any time soon; he took Jimmy Greaves’s record at Tottenham; yet the role of gallant loser seemed to be the one life’s casting director had assigned to him. His Jonah status can’t have improved when he turned up at pretty much the most successful club in Europe last season and Bayern had their first campaign in 12 years without a trophy. “It’s nice to be on the other side to be honest, to have that celebration I’ve not had before,” he says. “I’ve seen my fair share of other teams lifting trophies.”
In the hour preceding this interview, Kane has been making good on his celebration deficit, gallivanting up and down the Allianz Arena like an excited schoolboy, chasing his teammate Eric Dier in an attempt to douse him with a huge three-litre glass of beer. His compatriot showed an impressive turn of pace to escape, though Kane himself was cornered by Leon Goretzka and showered in Bavarian brew, a traditional celebration in these parts. This was what he came to Germany for.
“It doesn’t change me as a player,” Kane reflects. “I’m no different to what I was before I had won. It was something that was missing from my résumé. Maybe once you’ve won your first one there’s a little less to talk about and throw my way, but again it comes with it.”
He’s reminded of Rory McIlroy’s quip that journalists would have nothing to talk about after he ended his 11-year major droughtat the Masters last month. “In a way, [it’s] a little bit [like that],” Kane acknowledges. “That was one of the best tournaments I ever watched and my emotions were through the roof because I’m good friends with Justin Rose. But part of me wanted Rory to win and you saw the emotions that he went through. I can’t imagine what they were going through.”
Except, of course, he absolutely can. “It is a weight on the shoulders. I’m very aware of the fact that I hadn’t won it. I put myself under more pressure than anyone else. As the years go by you start to think: ‘Is it going to happen?’ You keep going, you keep pushing yourself and good things come and this is definitely one of those. And we’ll see what people talk about now. I’m sure they’ll find something and I’ll take it in my stride.”
Kane, Dier and their teammates had watched on TV the previous weekend as their rivals Bayer Leverkusen drew a match thatconfirmed Bayern as champions. It wasn’t long before the watchalong descended into tuneless renditions of We Are the Champions and more Bavarian beer-swilling. “Once it was official, a switch just went off and me and Eric especially started getting the champagne going, the songs going and everyone else just turned up,” Kane says. “That was a special night when everyone completely let free.”
On Saturday in Munich they could celebrate in front of their own fans and receive the trophy. It seemed fitting that once the team captains, Manuel Neuer and Müller, had lifted theMeisterschale, the player to whom they presented it first was Kane. He had waited long enough. This is why two years ago he had wrenched himself away from Spurs, who themselves have become a byword for underachievement.
“It was a big decision,” Kane says. “I could have easily stayed at Spurs, played in the Premier League and carried on scoring goals, but I wanted to push myself. I wanted to see how good I could be and play in the biggest games, the biggest title run-ins and Champions League games. I’ve done that. Though we’ve not been successful in the other competitions we’ve played in big games and big nights. And I think that tonight is just the start of something special.”
That he could share this night with his family and children (other than the youngest, Henry, 21 months old and safely home asleep) made it extraordinary. Louis, aged four, had joined him in front of Munich’s most passionate fans on theSüdkurveand, encouraged by dad, shot a penalty into an empty net. Only a curmudgeon, or an Arsenal fan, could fail to be moved, though the ensuing roar of celebration was an unforeseen problem. “He was scared of the celebrations. He’s going to have to work on that,” Kane says with a laugh. “Those are the memories that last a lifetime.”
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That he has been the honest trooper of English football and never, until now, the decorated hero, perhaps makes Kane more relatable. His is not the gilded path of the teen prodigy. At 19 he was loaned to Norwich for five months, played five times, scored zero goals, had one assist and is principally remembered for a terrible miss on his debut. He was relegated to the under-21 team where they wouldn’t let him take a penalty they had been awarded.
An equally unsuccessful loan at Leicester followed, where he famously sat on the bench with Jamie Vardy. He would stay out after training with a bag of balls, honing his finishing while some teammates scoffed at his assiduousness. The experience still animates him. “I think back to Norwich and Leicester. I wasn’t playing but doing extra training and finishing and had some players laughing and saying: ‘I don’t know why you’re doing that!’ All those little moments made me who I am. It’s the stuff you do behind the scenes, that no one sees, that really makes a difference.”
At that time he came across The Brady Six documentary about the legendary quarterback Tom Brady. The six referred to the sixth round of the NFL draft to which Brady was assigned, the rank of an also-ran foot soldier. “It definitely helped me because I saw a lot of similarities between me and him,” Kane says. “No one expected him to do what he went on to do. I think mine is a story that people can relate to, of hard work and never giving up.”
That is why Kane wants to promote Mental Health Awareness Week, which is also the goal of theHarry KaneFoundation. “There’s a lot of causes that need help and a lot of situations that I could have used my platform for but I just think that mental health is something I had a little bit of understanding with,” Kane explains. “There wasn’t just a straight line to the top [for me]. I had to really go through some tough times. Of course, not tough in terms of life threatening, but I felt like I had a connection especially for the younger generation. I’ve been on this journey. I’m learning more and more [about mental health] and for sure it’s something that I’ll really try to take on and help as much as I can when my career has finished.”
He is sympathetic towards gen Z, raised amid Covid and the rise of smartphones. “It is tough,” he says. “Sometimes you can be carried away or get taken away from yourself, especially nowadays with social media.” Kane’s principal advice, though, is fairly obvious given his life story: “Never give up. Take the ups with downs. In sport, in life, [it] isn’t perfect. You’re going to have moments where things don’t go your way and you have to find it within yourself to get through that.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have great family, a great wife, great friends around me. I’m learning more and more that mental health is about talking to people, whether family members, friends, people in a coffee shop. It’s good to talk. When you go through life you have to expect some great moments and some tough moments but always carry on. That’s the message I would say to anyone. Always carry on. Don’t give up.” It is a personal pep talk as well as sound advice.
Now Kane has won a trophy, it is not as though social-media sceptics will melt away. “In football, it’s always going to be: ‘OK, you’ve won this, but you haven’t won that,’” Kane says. “Until you’ve won it all – and there’s not many people who have won it all – you have to keep going.” Whatever happens now, he will always have a beer-soaked night in Munich to remember.