Bayern Munich Clinches Bundesliga Title: Harry Kane’s Long-Awaited Triumph
It’s over. It’s finally over! Bayern Munich have secured the 2024-25 Bundesliga title — courtesy of Bayer Leverkusen‘s 2-2 draw at SC Freiburg on Sunday — and with it Harry Kane‘s agonizing, career-long curse has at long last been broken.
The England captain left boyhood club Tottenham Hotspur for Bayern in 2023 in a marquee transfer that appeared to be a guarantee for the major trophies that had eluded him during his 13 years of brilliant, record-breaking but ultimately fruitless toil in North London.
However, Kane’s big move just so happened to coincide with Bayern’s lowest league finish in over a decade. After hoovering up the previous 11 league titles, Bayern washed up in third last season as the honors instead went to the unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen, fueling renewed talk of Kane’s career being somehow cursed. While the striker enjoyed a highly productive year on an individual level, scoring 44 goals in 45 appearances for Bayern in his debut campaign, he still managed to join the Bavarian giants in time for their first trophyless season since 2011-12, thus extending his own personal barren streak into a 15th year.
It’s been a similar story for Kane, 31, his entire senior career. It hasn’t been entirely desolate on the prize-winning front — his ridiculously consistent goal-scoring form has earned him many personal accolades and records. For all the false starts and near misses with Tottenham, Kane’s weighty record of 213 goals in 320 league games for the club saw him depart English football as the Premier League‘s second-highest all-time goal scorer, behind Alan Shearer.
We are the Champions!! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/YYHC7k6ldU
— Harry Kane (@HKane) May 4, 2025
But the prolific striker has failed to convert his exceptional talent into silverware, despite reaching five major finals with club and country. And no, we’re not going to count Spurs’ preseason Audi Cup win over Bayern in 2019 or the Tiger Cup, which Spurs lifted by beating Singaporean outfit Lion City Sailors 5-1 in a 2023 friendly.
Now that the hardship is over and he finally has a winner’s medal around his neck, it’s time for one last look back through the years of pain before closing the book on them forever.
May 12, 2013: Watford 3-1 Leicester City, 3-2 agg. (Championship playoff semifinal)
While the intention was for the young Kane to gain vital first-team football experience with Leicester City in the Championship, his loan at the Foxes actually served as an early introduction to the heartache of seeing a potential trophy go up in smoke before his very eyes.
The 19-year-old Kane was limited to cameos during the latter half of the season, but he did manage to make it off the bench during the second leg of the Championship playoff semifinal against Watford. Unfortunately, his second-half introduction coincided with the mounting of Watford’s thrilling comeback. That culminated deep in added time with Leicester’s Anthony Knockaert winning a highly dubious penalty which was thwarted by Manuel Almunia’s heroic double save, allowing Troy Deeney to score on the counterattack and send the Hornets to Wembley.
March 1, 2025: Chelsea 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur (League Cup final)
After laboring to see off Sheffield United over two legs in the semis, Tottenham completely ran out of juice against Premier League rivals Chelsea in the 2015 League Cup final. Despite mustering a light peppering of the opposition goal, JosĂ© Mourinho’s wily Blues scored once at the tail end of each half. To add insult to injury, the final strike from Diego Costa actually ricocheted in off Kane.
Still, having been given his shot as a first-team regular by new coach Mauricio Pochettino, the 21-year-old Kane seized his opportunity and finished as Spurs’ top scorer with 21 goals in the league and 31 overall, earning him the PFA Young Player of the Year award in his first full senior season at White Hart Lane.
play 2:51
Kane: Winning a trophy will stop the noise around me
Harry Kane speaks about whether he feels it is unfair that he hasn’t won a major club trophy.
May 2, 2016: Losing out to Leicester in title race (Premier League)
While the story of the 2015-16 Premier League campaign was Leicester City’s shock transformation from 5,000-1 outsiders to eventual champions, it could so nearly have been the year that Spurs won their first league title in more than half a century.
With the other so-called Big Six clubs either in crisis or undergoing transitional campaigns, as the season entered its final stages Pochettino’s plucky side emerged as the only team who might be able to nix the Foxes’ fairy tale. However, they won just four of their final 10 games and, after a 2-2 draw at Chelsea sealed the title for Leicester, a jaded Spurs team was ultimately pipped to second place by Arsenal after being thrashed 5-1 by already-relegated Newcastle on the final day.
April 22, 2017: Chelsea 4-2 Tottenham (FA Cup semifinal)
With Chelsea looking strong and vying for the Premier League and FA Cup double under Antonio Conte, Pochettino’s challengers did well to hold their own at Wembley against the champions elect. Willian opened the scoring with an early free kick only for Kane to equalize with a header shortly thereafter. Spurs were able to muster another equalizer after Willian’s penalty before the Blues’ momentum saw them steamroll to victory with late goals from Eden Hazard and Nemanja Matic.
May 14, 2017: Finishing as runners-up to Chelsea (Premier League)
After the embarrassment of stumbling at the final hurdle to finish below Arsenal the previous season, Tottenham rallied and staged a concerted Premier League title challenge in 2016-17 in their final season at White Hart Lane, going unbeaten at home all season.
Kane won the second of his three Premier League Golden Boots but Pochettino’s team could not reel in Chelsea at the top, instead having to settle for second place and their best-ever Premier League finish, bidding farewell to their old stadium with a 2-1 win over Manchester United. Kane’s 29 league goals (and 35 in all competitions) also saw him scoop the PFA Fans’ Player of the Year.
April 21, 2018: Manchester United 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur (FA Cup semifinal)
Kane’s quest to win the FA Cup with Spurs once again ended at the semifinal stage in 2018 when Manchester United, with familiar foe Mourinho gesticulating in the dugout, came from a goal down to salvage a gritty win and reach the final for a record-equaling 20th time.
In truth, Kane wasn’t fully fit, having rushed back from an injury to lead the line, but nevertheless the old “Spursy” label reared up again in the aftermath as the North London club slumped to their eighth successive FA Cup semifinal defeat, a risible run stretching back to the last time they won the competition in 1991.
July 11, 2018: Croatia 2-1 England after extra time (World Cup semifinal)
After reaching their first World Cup semifinal in 28 years, unfancied England finally came unstuck against a strong, experienced Croatia side who fought back from a goal down to win the tie in extra time with a sucker punch from Mario Mandzukic.
Kane had scored six goals in five games in Russia, but he looked a little tired in the knockout phase and his magic touch went missing in Moscow. He also received vehement criticism from fans back home for, with England 1-0 up in the first half, failing to square the ball to Raheem Sterling for an easy tap-in and instead squandering a close-range chance himself, although he was eventually flagged offside in any case.
Jan. 24, 2019: Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Chelsea, 2-2 agg., 2-4 pens (League Cup semifinal)
Despite having scored the only goal of the first leg at Wembley, Kane was ruled out of the second leg of the EFL Cup semifinal against Chelsea by an ankle injury that had stymied his 2018-19 season.
Without their main goal threat on the pitch, Tottenham saw Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea claw their way back into the tie before advancing via a tense penalty shootout at Stamford Bridge — thus inflicting Spurs’ third defeat in a domestic cup semifinal in the space of three years.
June 1, 2019: Tottenham Hotspur 0-2 Liverpool (Champions League final)
As the collective legs of Mauricio Pochettino’s effervescent Tottenham side began to become heavy, they had a truly glorious chance to cover over the cracks after reaching their first-ever Champions League final by beating Ajax in a blazing semifinal second-leg comeback.
Unfortunately, yet another untimely ankle knock saw Kane hastily pressed into starting in Madrid while clearly carrying an injury. Unsurprisingly, the Spurs striker endured a lackluster evening as Liverpool prevailed by scoring two decisive goals at each end of a somewhat turgid final. Pochettino was then sacked five months later after an underwhelming start to the 2019-20 season.
April 25, 2021: Manchester City 1-0 Tottenham (League Cup final)
A familiar story played out for Kane at Wembley as he was rushed back from an ankle injury only for the big game to pass him by. Spurs had sacked manager Mourinho mere days before the final and Manchester City capitalized to win the trophy for the fourth consecutive year under Pep Guardiola.
Spurs stumbled to finish seventh in the league but could at least take some consolation from the flourishing attacking partnership between Kane and Son Heung-Min. In 2020-21, the duo set a new-single season Premier League record for the most goals/assists produced between the same two players (14). Indeed, Kane and Son laid on an overall total of 47 league goals for each other at Spurs, which also still stands as a Premier League record.
July 12, 2021: England 1-1 Italy, 2-3 pens (European Championship final)
England’s agonizing 55-year wait for a major men’s international trophy was off to a promising start when Luke Shaw volleyed home two minutes into the Euro 2020 final at Wembley, converting a smart cross from captain Kane. However, Italy were unbeaten in 33 games coming into the final and dug in to stifle England with a defensive masterclass from Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini, causing Kane to drop increasingly deeper in order to get involved. The Azzurri then drew level in the 67th minute when Bonucci hammered home a rebound from point-blank range.
The game ultimately went to penalties and while Kane was able to convert his opening spot kick, three consecutive misses from England trio Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka saw the Three Lions’ monumental evening end in tears.
Jan. 12, 2022: Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Chelsea, 0-3 agg. (League Cup semifinal)
Kane’s last semifinal appearance for Tottenham had a familiar ending as Chelsea once again put paid to his hopes of finally winning some silverware with his beloved club. This time it was a single goal from Antonio RĂĽdiger that did the damage in the second leg as Spurs manager Antonio Conte was forced to watch his former club go waltzing into the final. Kane did have a goal disallowed in the second half but by that time the horse had well and truly bolted.
Aug. 12, 2023: Bayern Munich 0-3 RB Leipzig (German Super Cup)
Originally Written by: Chris Wright
