Wednesday, August 18, 2021
Mega deal with Kane or Haaland?
Why Bayern should sell Lewandowski
Needed by David
Robert Lewandowski wins the Supercup for Bayern with two goals, but still: Munich should pull Harry Kane ashore. The Tottenham star is a younger and better version of the Pole – and would probably rather move to Munich than Erling Haaland.
There’s this story of a young Harry Kane in an East London pub. As a ten- and twelve-year-old, he and his parents and many friends followed the games of the English national team during the 2004 European Championships and the 2006 World Cup at The Sirloin – and dreams of becoming one of the players with whom he was excited on the big screen. The adolescent imagines one day to raise a trophy up into the night sky. The dream is coming true, but so far only partially.
With the Three Lions, Kane achieved the greatest success as captain since 1966, only because of Italy did the English fail in the European Championship final at their home Wembley Stadium in the summer. With his childhood club, Tottenham Hotspur, the striker will make it to the Champions League final in 2019, but is subject to Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool FC. And so it happens that Kane and the Spurs (last triumph: League Cup winners 2008) do not win a single title despite very successful years. Kane would have loved to present “his” club, for which he has always been on the hunt for goals, with a trophy. In the meantime, however, the 28-year-old no longer believes that he will be able to make his dream of the title with Tottenham come true.
Kane, who has a contract with Tottenham until 2024, is now the target of European top clubs because he openly expresses his wish to move. The top striker wants to leave – and that could be the chance for FC Bayern. Of course, this consideration is hypothetical and it would mean the bitter departure of top scorer Robert Lewandowski, who only shot Borussia Dortmund with two goals on Tuesday evening and secured the Supercup for the record champions. It will probably not come to that anyway because of the huge sums in circulation. But: Tottenham is reluctant to let Kane go, but especially not in the direction of a league rival. That meant a double loss that the Spurs absolutely want to avoid. The English would let their attacker switch to the Bundesliga sooner.
When Lewandowski moves to Real …
If the Munich team were clever, they could succeed in swapping their world footballer Lewandowski for a younger and equal, maybe even better model. Lewandowski, who celebrates his 33rd birthday on Saturday, is under contract with FC Bayern until the summer of 2023. It is an open secret that the Pole would like to take on a new challenge in another top division at the end of his career. He has always had a fascination for Spain and especially Real Madrid. Every now and then there was a change topic.
If Bayern were to force this, those responsible could still pocket a decent sum and would have at least the majority of the money for a mega-deal with Tottenham and Kane. The wealthy Manchester City is said to have already expressed interest in Lewandowski in the summer. Transfermarkt.de estimates the market value of the Pole at 60 million euros and that of the Spurs striker at 120 million euros; Tottenham is currently still demanding the horrific sum of around 170 million euros.
Of course, Kane would rather move to the extremely interested English champions Manchester City (should offer up to 140 million euros) and stay at home and in the most prestigious league in the world. However, he should estimate his chances of a Champions League victory at Bayern much higher than at Tottenham (there is no need to write about the possibilities of winning a championship here). Kane has certainly also observed exactly how Lewandowski was with the Munich world footballers and that the system was completely tailored to the center forward.
World striker in his prime
Although Lewandowski’s change this summer is extremely unlikely, FC Bayern should be aware that an adequate replacement will be difficult to find in the next few years. Real Madrid are currently digging at world champion striker Kylian Mbappé from Paris Saint-Germain. But the Spanish record holder will have to be patient in this case at least until next summer – and could therefore be more interested in Lewandowski again.
Nobody should doubt that Harry Kane would be a worthy successor to Lewandowski. 38 goals in 61 international matches, 166 for Tottenham in 245 league games (plus 38 assists) and 20 goals in 24 Champions League games speak for themselves. Both strikers are physically very strong, good at headers and with their feet, are quick and have the gift of being able to score from just about any position with just one touch of the ball. Both have been among the very best in the center forward position for years. Kane is even a little more flexible, is stronger at dribbling and can also guide the game from midfield with clever passes. It is the slightly better overall package and five years younger than that. Rio world champion Sami Khedira once called the Tottenham striker the “most complete striker” – ahead of Robert Lewandowski for a reason.
With Kane, Munich would have one of the world’s best in its heyday in their attack series for years to come. Even if they would have to pay a lot more for the striker even in the event of a Lewandowski sale, the transfer could be worthwhile in the long term. Because with the Englishman in the storm, a triumph in the Champions League seems more likely than with the slowly aging Lewandowski, who no longer scores as reliably in the most important games as in the Bundesliga or the Supercup, where the opponent from Dortmund does not have a world class Defense boasted. The Pole fell injured in the quarter-finals against PSG in the previous premier class tournament, which Bayern failed. In the triple year 2020, Lewandowski only scored the unimportant 3-0 in the 88th minute of the game in the semifinals against Lyon and 6-2 in the quarter-finals against Barcelona, when everything was already decided. In the final he remained pale, the winning goal marked Kingsley Coman.
If it doesn’t work out with Kane, a sale of Lewandowski would also make sense for FC Bayern in order to be able to secure the services of Erling Haaland. Then, however, only in the coming year. According to “Sport Bild” there is even supposed to be a secret plan of the record champions. The Dortmund striker is well on his way to becoming one of the greatest in Europe and already showed on the first day of the Bundesliga what a sensation he is already at the age of 21. The Norwegian’s contract with BVB will run until summer 2024, but it is now clear that he can and will leave the club next summer for a release clause of around 80 million euros.
Why not Bavaria instead of City?
However, Haaland and his team prefer to move abroad. Real Madrid can expect particularly good chances (depending of course on what happens to Lewandowski), because the BVB striker is considered a fan of the Spanish capital club. But a move to the Premier League also seems realistic, some media are already rumoring of a waiting contract with Chelsea. Bayern Munich should therefore only have outsider chances in the race for the future world star.
So that’s Harry Kane. He was now not in the squad (officially due to a lack of fitness) when his club won 1-0 against Manchester City of all places on the first day of the Premier League. “No Kane, no problem,” was the headline of the English rainbow press. Reputable newspapers like “The Telegraph” and the “Times” report that Tottenham club boss Daniel Levy has finally banned a Kane transfer to City. For the Europa Conference League duel against Pacos de Ferreira in Portugal on Thursday, the striker is at least back in the London squad.
But what happens when Bayern suddenly comes around the corner and the Champions League beckons instead of the Conference? Only purely hypothetical, of course. All of this is pretty unlikely. The people in the pubs in East London would even applaud the German champion or Champions League winner Harry Kane in the Bayern jersey.
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