Bayern have finally found Harry Kane (30) the replacement for their center forward Robert Lewandowski, more than 12 months after the departure to FC Barcelona of his Polish goal machine for eight seasons. The Munich club put in the financial means to snatch Kane from Tottenham, making the English striker the most expensive rookie in the history of the Bundesliga. According to German and English media, the transfer fee is 100 million euros plus 10 million euros in bonuses, well above the 80 million paid by the German champions to attract French international defender Lucas Hernandez in the summer of 2019.
“It feels good to be here”
“Bayern is one of the biggest clubs in the world and I have always said that I wanted to develop in my career at the highest level and prove it. Bayern is characterized by the culture of winning, it feels good to be here,” Kane explained, as quoted in the Bayern statement. The striker had bid farewell to Tottenham supporters on social media a few minutes earlier. Negotiations between Tottenham and Bayern have spanned more than six weeks, with Bayern closing in on Spurs chairman Daniel Levy’s price tag of 100 million pounds (about 116.5 million euros).
Once the agreement between the two clubs was concluded on Thursday, Kane gave the green light in the evening, after hesitation according to the English and German media. He then had his medical examination in Munich. Trained at Tottenham since 2004 and then turned professional in 2011, Kane has spent 17 of the last 19 years with Spurs and will experience his first experience abroad in Bavaria, where he hopes to win his first titles.
At Bayern, he arrives in a six-time club winner of the Champions League (1974, 1975, 1976, 2001, 2013 and 2020) and German champion 33 times (including the last 11 titles), hence his nickname of “Rekordmeister”. The Munich residents, however, remain on eliminations in the quarter-finals of the C1 in 2021 (Paris SG), 2022 (Villarreal) and 2023 (Manchester City), and on a 2022/23 season concluded with an eleventh consecutive title of champion assured in extremis in the 89th minute of the final day.