Bad Luck Or Bad Decisions: Why Has Harry Kane Yet To Win A Trophy Despite Scoring 387 Goals So Far In His Career?

It is no longer news that England lost the final of Euro 2024 2-1 to Spain.

There are those who feel that the defeat was justice served because apparently, the Three Lions never even deserved to make it to the final. Their semi-final victory over the Netherlands was marred with numerous controversies. 

England’s loss to La Roja left them with the unwanted record of being the first nation to lose back-to-back Euro finals. Being a fan of the Three Lions is no doubt a rollercoaster ride. The penalty shoot-out loss against Italy back in 2021 is no doubt fresh in their minds. Their team reach another final in 2024 and instead of finding redemption, they suffer more heartbreak.

The most talked about player after England’s loss was none other than their captain Harry Kane. This is because the striker has played 6 finals so far in his career and has lost all of them, the 6th being the Euro 2024 final. Also, despite his stellar individual achievements, surprisingly the 30-year-old has yet to win any trophy, whether major or minor.

To put it in a better context, the Bayern Munich striker has scored 387 goals thus far and won numerous golden boots along the way but is yet to win any silverware.

The 2023/24 season was indeed full of ups and downs for Harry Kane. The day after he joined Bayern Munich from Tottenham, the Bavarians were to play the RB Leipzig in the German Super Cup Final. 

Bayern Munich were strong favourites to win the game and this would mean that Harry Kane would win his first trophy just hours after joining the German giants. As fate would have it, RB Leipzig defied the odds to beat Bayern Munich 3-0. Harry Kane’s wait for silverware was set to continue.

The Bavarians had been Bundesliga champions for the 11 years in a row prior to the 2023/24 season. In Harry Kane’s first season with the club, they lost the title to Xabi Alonso’s Bayern Leverkusen side. Not only did Bayern Munich fail to become Bundesliga champions 2023/24, but they also ended the season in 3rd position.

One doesn’t have to be a genius to figure out that Harry Kane left Tottenham for Bayern Munich to win trophies. Sadly, his first season in Germany is one he will want to forget about as quickly as possible. 

2023/24 was not all doom and gloom for Harry Kane though. The striker scored 44 goals across all competitions for Bayern Munich. This impressive feat won him the European Golden Shoe award. It was also the first time in his career the Englishman had won the award.

After his first season with Bayern, some are now convinced that Harry Kane might be suffering from some bad luck. You can’t really blame them for believing this. The odds of losing 6 finals in a row are indeed astronomical. However, before you can come to a conclusion that the striker has a chip on his shoulder, you have to analyze his former club Tottenham Hotspur.

The last time the North London club won a trophy was in 2008 when they defeated Chelsea 2-1 in the Carabao Cup final. Between then and now, Spurs have played numerous finals and lost all of them.

At one point in time, the club had Harry Kane, Son Hueng-Min, Hugo Lloris, Jan Vertoghen, Dele Alli, and Moussa Dembele in their ranks and couldn’t win a trophy. Not even the minor ones like the Carabao Cup and FA Cup. It was indeed sad.

In the 2015/16 season, Tottenham Hotspur scored the most goals and conceded the least number of goals in the Premier League. With this amazing record, they didn’t win the Premier League. Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City side were champions in that campaign.

If you are going to draw an inference that Harry Kane has bad luck with regards to winning silverware, you also have to point a finger at Tottenham Hotspur. Plus, you have to look closely at the major decisions the striker made while at North London before concluding he is down on his luck.

When the 2020/21 season ended, Sergio Aguero left Manchester City after 10 very successful seasons with the club. Pep Guardiola wanted Harry Kane to replace the Argentine. Tottenham Hotspur, however, have a very notorious track record of frustrating the potential transfers of players they do not want to let go of.

After a series of back-and-forths, the deal eventually fell through.

Harry Kane went on to spend 2 more seasons with Spurs. During that period, they didn’t win anything meanwhile Pep Guardiola’s side won 4 trophies, including the Champions League and back-to-back Premier League titles. This could have been the Englishman’s fate should he have stood his ground on his decision to leave North London.

The Bayern Munich striker is not the first player Tottenham Hotspur’s management has strongarmed into not leaving the club and will most likely not be the last. The two most famous players they have done this to in the past are Luka Modric and Gareth Bale who later went on to join Real Madrid.

Unlike Harry Kane, these two were uncompromising in the decision to depart from North London and they reaped the benefits greatly.

Luka Modric won nothing during his time at Tottenham and has currently won 22 trophies so far as a Real Madrid player. The midfielder also won the Ballon d’Or award in 2018, a feat which would have been next to impossible to achieve should he have remained at North London.

Just like Luka Modric, Gareth Bale also didn’t win any trophy as a Spurs player. After securing a world-record move to Real Madrid, the Welshman went on to win 17 trophies with the Spanish giants. He also got to play alongside Karim Benzema and 5-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo to form one of the greatest attacking trios in the history of football (BBC).

Harry Kane no doubt made the right decision in deciding to leave Tottenham Hotspur. However, it would have been a better decision to remain in the Premier League rather than opt for Bayern Munich. The striker is a mere 48 goals shy of breaking Alan Shearer’s record for most goals scored in the history of the Premier League. This is why many regarded his decision to join the Bavarians as very questionable.

All things considered, Harry Kane left North London to win trophies. Granted, his first season with Bayern Munich was rather disappointing but there is no how a club of that calibre will go 2-3 seasons without winning any silverware. The 30-year-old will eventually get his trophies.

Also, days after the Euro final loss to Spain, Gareth Southgate stepped down as England’s manager. He had a very capable squad at his disposal but he limited their potential with his rigid tactics. 

England currently have one of the most talented squads in world football, if not the most talented. If they can get a manager who has what it takes to get the best out of these players, their odds of winning their first trophy since 1966 will no doubt greatly increase.

In conclusion, Harry Kane’s trophy drought is a complex phenomenon that cannot be attributed solely to bad luck or bad decisions. While Kane’s impressive goal-scoring record and recent move to Bayern Munich suggest a desire to win trophies, his experiences with Tottenham and England demonstrate that individual brilliance is not enough to guarantee success. 

The examples of Luka Modric and Gareth Bale show that sometimes, a change of scenery is necessary to achieve greatness. Despite the setback of his first season at Bayern, Kane’s decision to leave Tottenham was the right one. With a talented England squad and a club like Bayern Munich behind him, the odds are in Kane’s favor to finally lift a trophy in the near future. 

This article was updated 2 months ago