The Premier League Needs Harry Kane To Be A Success At Bayern Munich

Harry Kane’s Bayern Munich debut couldn’t have gone much worse.

The England captain’s time at the Bavarian giants could still be counted in hours when he took to the Allianz Arena field for the DFL Super Cup against RB Leipzig last week.

And, although the greeting was rapturous, the result was certainly not Bayern crumbled to a 0-3 defeat in the seasonal curtain raiser.

The loss at least saved his previous employer Tottenham Hotspur with the ignominy of having to watch their all-time leading goalscorer do in barely a day what he couldn’t manage in over a decade in North London: win a trophy.

Instead, coach Thomas Tuchel was left apologizing to Kane for being welcomed with such a sluggish display.

“I cannot explain it. It was just not enough in every department,” he told the media, “I have no idea why. There is no relation between our form and attitude going into the game and our performance on the pitch.

“It is the worst thing because there is such a big discrepancy.”

Super Cups should never be used as guides for how a season will develop, but there were hot takes on the game which used it as the basis to make more fundamental claims about Bayern Munich.

“Kane comes to a club in crisis,” German sports writer Christoph Biermann told English newspaper The i “People don’t seem to know why, even within Bayern.”

A week later, such concerns look painfully premature.

Handed his first start for Bayern Munich on Friday night [August 18] it took Kane just four minutes to begin shifting the narrative.

Dropping off into the midfield he clipped a delightfully weighted ball around the corner and into the path of Leroy Sane who raced forward to open the scoring.

A bright performance by Kane was capped with a Bundesliga debut goal with 15 minutes to go and, after the game, the striker was gushing with enthusiasm.

“It was fantastic,” he told one of the English reporters to make the trip, “there’s been a lot of talk and a lot of build-up towards this game so I just couldn’t wait to get out there and get started.

“It started well with the goal early on. It was a tough game; we created some good chances but just lacked the final product. They came out in the second half and caused us a couple of problems for five to 10 minutes.

“But we stayed calm and then obviously I managed to get the second goal, and then the boys finished it off from the bench.

“Overall, just the perfect start and I’m looking forward to the next week and the next one.”

Reassuringly for Kane, he is surrounded by the type of attacking talent beside which the central striker tends to thrive.

Flanked by Kingsley Coman and Leroy Sane, with Jamal Musiala in the number 10 role, the Englishman will be able to dominate the penalty area and create chances from deeper positions.

“I think with the pace we have in this team around me it works perfectly,” Kane added, “but I’m a No 9 first and foremost, so I’ve got to get in the box and make the runs forward.

“I’m really happy. We’ve got a fantastic squad, I’m excited to be a part of it. Overall, just a really good team performance.”

Kane’s Culture Shock

The challenge for Kane won’t necessarily be settling into the Bayern Munich team, but adapting to the upheaval of moving to a new country in his 30s.

Having spent the vast majority of his career not only in the same city but at one club it is a huge change.

Kane hinted at the level of the culture shock in an answer about his coming down with a cramp in the second half.

“Obviously the pre-season was a bit up and down towards the end and this was my first proper game,” he said.

“Just the whole environment has changed, there’s a lot going on with the family and everything so it was just a bit of cramp towards the end there.”

Despite England’s claims that it had the best league in the world for decades, scarcely any of its homegrown players chose to demonstrate this apparent superiority by playing abroad.

There were the odd notable exceptions, like Steve Mcmanaman and David Beckham at Real Madrid, on the whole moves like Paul Gascoigne to Lazio or Paul Ince at Inter Milan were short-lived failures.

The problem, particularly in the Premier League era, was that it was simply too easy to stay in England.

Unlike in the 1970s or 1980s when stars like Kevin Keegan or Gary Lineker had to move abroad to truly be considered amongst the best, improvements in domestic standards meant that there was little reason to leave.

English people, in general, can have issues adapting to foreign cultures, you only need to visit a resort town in Spain or Portugal to bear witness to this.

Cafes will go to great effort to offer authentic English Breakfasts and bars will imitate the British pub to appease holidaymakers.

Although it’s fair to say clinging to home comforts is hardly a UK phenomenon, in most places, there is a diaspora you’ll find similar practices.

A new generation

These days, however, there is a far greater willingness amongst young English players to play abroad.

Having the richest league on your doorstep turns out to be a bit of a hindrance for players lacking in experience and talented teenagers have chosen to travel in search of opportunities.

The evidence of the benefits of such a strategy is ample.

Jadon Sancho and Jude Bellingham both found first-team soccer and stardom at Borussia Dortmund, whilst Tammy Abraham’s move to Roma and Fiyako Tomori’s AC Milan transfer have been roaring successes.

The difference between all those youngsters and Kane is that they were all at least a decade younger when they made the move abroad.

It’s one thing moving to Germany as a teenager with no responsibilities, quite another to transplant family life with children to a strange new land.

But for the Premier League to really claim it is the greatest in the world it needs its best striker for the past decade to prove he can do it elsewhere.

Derogatory remarks about the Bundesliga by English fans won’t stand up to much if the man who seemed destined to break Alan Shearer’s goalscoring record can’t perform abroad.

The positive news is Kane seems to be embracing the new surroundings, at this early stage at least.

“[It’s] really different probably to some of the Premier League atmospheres I’ve experienced. Our away fans were amazing but credit to their fans as well, they were great,” he said in reflection of the win against Werder Bremen

“I really enjoyed my experience and I’m just happy that we’ve come away with the win.”