Kane left suspended in the stands as his first trophy is all but won

Harry Kane spent his final day in the waiting room in civvies, in Leipzig, while his Bayern Munich team-mates endeavoured to liberate him from the curse of being the best modern player never to have won anything.

The first trophy is almost in his grasp. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at Leipzig means that Bayer Leverkusen will have to overturn a goal difference of 30 to pull off a miracle.

Kane, 32 in July, made his league debut on loan at Leyton Orient in January 2011, away at Rochdale. Fourteen years later he is still trying to put fingers on a trophy. His vantage point yesterday was not the centre-forward position but the stands at RB Leipzig’s Red Bull Arena, to which he was confined by a fifth yellow card of the season and subsequent suspension incurred in a 3-0 win against Mainz last weekend.

Fifteen years from when he first signed a professional contract is an inordinate time to wait. At least when England’s all-time leading scorer is a league champion, in Germany, it will “stop that noise around me”, in his words, without quite dispelling the anomaly of it taking so long. The consummation will have finally come abroad, far from Tottenham Hotspur, where he spent more time than a good contract negotiator would have let him.

There is no modern parallel for a player of Kane’s stature reaching the 15-year mark with no team cup to show for it. A tenuous associated list is that of top modern players who never won the Ballon d’Or: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robert Lewandowski, Andrea Pirlo, Dennis Bergkamp, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and, incredibly, Thierry Henry. Yet all won plenty of team prizes.

It was typical of Kane’s struggle that he should be a spectator at his own deliverance. He was booked last weekend for the frivolous crime of trying to block a Mainz free-kick. An editorial in Bild scolded him for his pointless misjudgement and Bayern Munich’s president Herbert Hainer told the German paper: “That’s bitter. He has a chance to become German champion on Saturday. It’s his first major title, and it hurts us all that he won’t be on the pitch.”

Kane blamed the referee: “Unfortunately, sometimes people come to the Allianz Arena [Munich’s ground] and try to make a name for themselves. He could hardly wait to show me the yellow card. It’s kind of my story that I’ll miss the Leipzig game. But no worries, I’ll celebrate more than anyone else.”

Numerous individual awards adorn the career of England’s most prolific striker: European Golden Shoe, World Cup and Champions League leading scorer (in individual years), plus an MBE and Freedom of the City of London. But team trophies, there was none, until he escaped Tottenham’s groundhog day and joined a German club pretty much guaranteed to win things. This season’s coronation would take Bayern to 34 Bundesliga titles.

Even then Kane had to wait. Bayern had won the Bundesliga 11 times in a row. But then along came Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen, last year’s champions, as Kane was settling into his German lessons. In his debut season in Munich, where he was the Bundesliga’s record signing at €110 million (£93million), he scored 36 league goals in 32 games. Leverkusen, however, became the first team not called Bayern Munich to win the Bundesliga since Borussia Dortmund in 2011-12.

Kane moved to Bayern in August 2023 with one year still left on his Tottenham contract. At Spurs he was the all-time leading scorer with 280 in 435 appearances. His bounty of 80 from 89 matches in all competitions for Bayern features seven hat-tricks. He has scored against every Bundesliga opponent he has faced.

Prior to this season though, his CV was a pile of silver medals: League Cup runner-up (twice), Champions League runner-up, European Championship runner-up with England (twice). Spurs were also Premier League runners-up in 2016-17, despite his 29 league goals.

Kane told ESPN recently: “Football and sports in general are pretty cut-throat when you don’t get over the line. Everything else is pretty much forgotten about. That is what makes you who you are. Those learnings, those ups and downs. It is never a straight line to the top of the mountain. There are bumps along the way. The most pleasing thing is the motivation and the drive to keep being the best I can be.”

His professionalism, consistency and finishing skills are beyond reproach. His contract decisions have been less auspicious. The six-year deal he signed in North London in 2018 rendered him a captive of the Premier League’s toughest negotiator, Daniel Levy, at a club where a good balance sheet is more highly prized than a trophy.

The England all-time scoring list is instructive. It shows Kane, with 71 goals in 105 games, to be 18 goals ahead of Wayne Rooney in second place but hopelessly adrift on the more important honours board.

l Wayne Rooney (53 in 120) – five Premier League titles, one Champions League, one FA Cup, three League Cups, one Europa League

l Sir Bobby Charlton (49 in 106) – three First Division titles, one FA Cup, one European Cup, one World Cup, one Ballon d’Or

l Gary Lineker (48 in 80) – one FA Cup, one European Cup Winners’ Cup, one Copa del Rey

l Jimmy Greaves (44 in 57) – two FA Cups, one European Cup Winners’ Cup, one World Cup, one Serie A title

Kane’s contract at Bayern Munich runs until 2027. He will win more pots there. The trophy room of his house will not lack things to polish. But most will be individual awards. He could add another if he returns to chase down the Premier League scoring record of 260 held by Alan Shearer: a grail of English football.