The “Kane Curse”: Harry Kane’s Struggle to Win Trophies Continues

We once believed that Bayern would have a final chance to save their season at Wembley, in the land of Harry Kane, where they won their last Champions League in 2013. But winning in Madrid, at Santiago Bernabeu, in the Champions League has been impossible in recent years. And win, quite simply, with the English striker, too. The idea of ​​a curse surrounding him may seem stupid and this is particularly the opinion of the former Bulgarian striker of Tottenham, Manchester United or Monaco Dimitar Berbatov. “It seems stupid and it’s a lack of respect,” he said in an interview with Belfair several weeks ago. “I don’t even want to think about it. Sometimes football and life work like that . He will win trophies, that’s for sure.” But it won’t be this season. Not in a club anyway.

Wembley, temple maudit

However, his departure from Tottenham, his lifelong club, his favorite club, was intended to finally fill a trophy cabinet devoid of any success. Not that Harry Kane was not successful during nine years spent at Tottenham, on the contrary. Top scorer in the history of Spurs (280 goals) but also of the English selection (62 goals), player most often crowned player of the month in the Premier League (7)… The native of Walthamstow has multiplied records but also, and above all, the failures in his quest for a trophy. If the Premier League has never really left Kane with any regrets (2nd in 2017 but 7 points behind Chelsea), it has not been the same with the cups.

“Joselu, symbol of a Real that overturns everything, regardless of the context”

When Spurs finally achieved the feat of going far in the 2018-2019 Champions League, by eliminating Manchester City in the quarter and Ajax in the semi-finals after a crazy comeback, they lost in the final (0- 2) against Liverpool. Without shame, logically even, but without a trophy. Same for the League Cup finals in 2015 and 2021. Seeing Kane and Tottenham lose, each time without scoring, was not surprising given the opponents (2-0 against Chelsea then 1-0 against Manchester City). Two defeats at Wembley, already, for Kane, before this cruel defeat in the final of Euro 2021, at home, on penalties against Italy. As if nothing wanted to smile at him. His departure to Bayern was supposed to solve everything, it only highlighted the “Kane curse”.

Bellingham or the Kane curse: who will be strongest at the Euro?

The slap (0-3) received in the German Super Cup against Leipzig made people smile, Bayern losing this trophy for the first time since 2016, for Harry Kane’s first match. The rest much less so. While the Munich residents have been winning league titles for 11 years, they dropped their title for the first time since the 2011-2012 Bundesliga season. Harry Kane is hardly guilty given his performances (36 goals and 8 assists two days from the end) and Leverkusen’s coronation is solely due to his extraordinary season. Difficult to say the same for the pitiful elimination of Bayern in the German Cup, in the 2nd round, by FC Saarbrücken (2-1), a 3rd division club, a match that Kane did not play, however.

The Champions League therefore remained Bayern’s last chance and it was swept away on Wednesday by the madness at the end of the matches at Santiago Bernabeu. Once again we cannot blame the Bavarian striker, author of the best individual season by an Englishman in the history of the Champions League (8 goals and 4 assists). But it is of course a white season that he will end his first year in Munich, an outcome that Harry Kane knows only too well. Even if he can still save his season, with the Euro in Germany in June where he intends to win thanks to the help of Jude Bellingham, the man who has everything smiling this year. Unless the “Kane curse” strikes again.

2024-05-09 07:00:00
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