Harry Kane is departing boyhood club Tottenham to join Bayern Munich in a £100m deal; Bayern kick off their season with a German Super Cup clash against RB Leipzig on Saturday, kick-off 7.45pm live on Sky Sports Football
Saturday 12 August 2023 09:48, UK
Football as it is meant to be. So goes the phrase underpinning the Bundesliga's branding. It is designed to reflect the community traditions, cheap season tickets and boisterous support that sets the German game apart from the excesses of the Premier League.
And then Bayern Munich sign Harry Kane for £100m.
Bayern have succeeded where Manchester City failed two years ago in snaffling the man who has scored more Premier League goals than anyone else this century. A deal deemed crazy by honorary president Uli Hoeness in the spring is a reality in the summer.
There is an awareness in Munich and beyond that this is a game-changer.
"It is the first time that we pay on that level for a player," Andreas Jung, a senior figure in Bayern's executive board, told Sky Sports. "We know that for other teams who have investors, it is not a big issue to have a player for €100m. For us, it is something special."
Putting that to Thomas Tuchel on Friday, he replied: "We are trying to get the captain of the English national team out of England, out of the Premier League. That says it all. It is a huge deal that we are working on, a huge signature that we are working on."
And now it is done. The England captain will play for Bayern Munich.
Kane is here to win trophies, here to elevate his career. For Bayern, this is about more than the Bundesliga title that has been theirs for the last 11 seasons whether they had a world-class striker within their squad or not. Falling short domestically would be failure.
Alan McInally, the last British target man to wear the Bayern shirt, recalls how Hoeness made that crystal clear when he joined them back in 1989. In Munich, he was told, winning the Bundesliga was the bare minimum. Europe was the real prize for Bayern.
This is about the Champions League. Tuchel's team had already been second favourites behind Manchester City even before Kane arrived. With him around, there will be an expectation that they reach the final. The scene for that? Wembley, of course.
This is about status. There has been an attempt in England to downplay the size of the step from Tottenham to Bayern, some even suggesting that it represents regression of sorts given the pre-eminence of the Premier League, a competition that swallows all others.
It is not a view that could survive a visit to Bavaria, a visit to the Allianz Arena. What McInally calls "the massive global machine" that is Bayern, this is the world into which Kane is now entering. A club with more members than any other sporting institution.
There will be pressure. Demands on him because of the record transfer fee, maybe a little distaste at paying so much for any player.
But Tuchel knows what he is buying, knows who is getting. A robust forward who finishes as reliably as anyone around but one with the passing range to bring so much more. A sure thing. "There is no discussion about him as a football player," says Jung. He is right.
Because this is about more than what Kane will do on the pitch.
A statement signing. And the statement is perhaps aimed at the Premier League. "It shows that we are competitive with the others," says Jung. "We will have a team that, in every competition that we play, has the chance, the opportunity, to win that competition."
If Kane can make it happen, both player and club will be vindicated.
Bayern kick off their season with a German Super Cup clash against RB Leipzig on Saturday, kick-off 7.45pm live on Sky Sports Football.
The German champions then start the defence of their Bundesliga title away at Werder Bremen, live on Sky Sports Action on August 18 - kick-off 7.30pm.
Bayern then face a home fixture against Augsburg, live on Sky Sports Football on August 27, kick-off 4.30pm.
