Harry Kane becomes top-scoring Englishman in a Bundesliga season
He may only have been in Germany for a mere matter of months, but already Harry Kane has been sending records tumbling, with the latest feather added to his cap on Friday night in Bayern Munich’s 1-0 win over Cologne.
With his match-winning strike – his 18th of the season – Kane became the most prolific English goalscorer in a single season of Bundesliga football. And we are only at Matchday 12.
Kane pounced on a rebound to slot in a goal which proved to be worth three points for the record champions, taking them past Bayer Leverkusen to the summit – at least for a night – and taking Kane past Kevin Keegan and Jadon Sancho as the Bundesliga's top-scoring Englishman in a single season.
Watch: Cologne 0-1 Bayern - highlights
Keegan’s record of 17 goals was set in the 1978/79 season, and it was matched by Sancho in 2019/20 before Kane went one better on Friday, barely a third of the way into the season. He has 22 more games to increase his new record, and the prospects for that to happen are good.
In fact, Kane could become the most prolific English goalscorer in the Bundesliga of all time – all in one season. Tony Woodcock holds that record with 39 goals (from 131 games), but if Kane can keep scoring with his current regularity, he would smash Robert Lewandowski’s single-season record of 41 goals, and establish a new best of 51.
That is all hypothetical, but to underline Kane’s achievement, Keegan was on the field for 3,059 minutes for his 17 goals, equating to one every 180 minutes – one every two games – while Sancho’s 17 strikes came in a total of 2,289 minutes of action, for a ratio of one every 135 minutes.
Kane’s current ratio stands at one every 58 minutes (from a total of 1,052 minutes in action); every hour of Bayern’s Bundesliga action this season has thus seen a Kane goal.
No wonder, then, that he told bundesliga.com that this is "definitely one of the best" spells of his career.
Watch: Kane on his current purple patch
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In fact, the 30-year-old has scored in 10 of his 12 Bundesliga appearances, only failing to find the back of the net against Borussia Mönchengladbach and Freiburg, though he did supply an assist in that 3-0 win.
Adding his five assists this season to the equation and Kane has been involved in 23 of Bayern’s 43 goals this season, with a goal involvement every 45 minutes.
Kane has thus been involved in one Bayern goal in every half of their Bundesliga fixtures this season, accounting for an average of almost two goals per game.
Furthermore, no player in Bundesliga history has ever had 18 goals after their first 12 games. The earliest 18 goals had previously been scored by a newcomer to the league was after 18 games – a record set by Uwe Seeler almost 60 years ago.
The great Gerd Müller did once manage 17 goals in 12 games, while Robert Lewandowski had 16 goals in 11 games in 2019/20, but neither were able to match Kane’s continuity and had to wait longer before plundering their 18th goal.
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Which begs the question how far Kane’s goalscoring exploits can go this season, and we will just have to keep watching him to find out.
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