England’s Kane heads to Bayern as France’s Dembélé signs five-year
England striker Harry Kane has opted to leave Tottenham in search of silverware with Bayern Munich, likely forgoing the chance to achieve Premier League immortality. And France international Ousmane Dembélé has signed a five-year deal with PSG from Barcelona, the Ligue 1 champions announced on Saturday.
Kane has scored 213 Premier League goals, behind only Alan Shearer’s 260, and was a near certainty to overtake the Newcastle great if he had stayed in England.
The 30-year-old moved ahead of Jimmy Greaves as Tottenham’s record scorer last season and also supplanted Wayne Rooney at the top of England’s all-time goal list.
But despite his impressive personal milestones, Kane has not won a single trophy with club or country, losing in the 2019 Champions League final and tasting bitter defeat in the final of the delayed Euro 2020.
At German champions Bayern he is almost certain to rectify that, joining a club who are serial winners, domestically and in Europe.
The clean-cut Kane, married to his childhood sweetheart, often feels like a throwback to a different era in the frantic circus that is the English top-flight.
He has been remarkably consistent, passing the 20-goal mark in the Premier League six times and winning the Golden Boot on three occasions.
Kane describes his predatory instincts in front of goal as “natural”, adding: “When that ball drops to me my body takes over and my mind is just blank really.”
The striker, who joined Tottenham’s academy in 2009, struggled to make an impression early in his professional career and many doubted he would ever make it at the highest level.
Even after his breakthrough season in 2014/15, he was dubbed a “one-season wonder”, an accusation that has proved laughably wide of the mark.
There were almost two years between Kane’s first Spurs goal against Shamrock Rovers in 2011 and his next, against Hull in 2013.
A loan move to second-tier Millwall provided a tantalising…
