Harry Kane: Can Bayern Munich striker beat Robert Lewandowski’s Bundesliga record?
“I feel like we are getting better each game.”
Those words from Harry Kane will strike fear into the rest of the Bundesliga – and the European elite – after his record-breaking start to life at Bayern Munich just got even better.
The England striker became the first player to score 15 goals in his first 10 Bundesliga games when he hit his third hat-trick of the season in Bayern’s impressive 4-0 win at Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.
His stunning impact since signing from Tottenham for an initial 100m euros (£86.4m) in the summer has already got people predicting Robert Lewandowski’s all-time Bundesliga record is in danger.
The former Bayern Munich man – now at Barcelona – scored 41 league goals in 2020-21, surpassing Gerd Muller’s 49-year record of 40. If Kane carries on as he has started, he is on course to hit 50 goals.
Kane could even exceed the 52 goals that Erling Haaland scored in all competitions in his first season for Manchester City last campaign.
Incredibly, though, Kane isn’t the only player posing a serious threat to Lewandowski’s record, with Stuttgart’s Serhou Guirassy hitting 14 so far in nine league games.
The France-born Guinea international scored 11 goals on loan at Stuttgart last time, but his goals this season are making some of Europe’s top sides really sit up and take notice.
With Kane and Guirassy on fire, records could continue to fall.
How good has Kane’s start been this season?
- This is Kane’s best ever start to a season in terms of goals
- His 20 Bundesliga goal involvements (including five assists) is also the most he has ever achieved in his first 10 games of a league season
- He has scored 17 goals in 13 games in all competitions for Bayern, and 20 goals in 15 games for club and country
- No player in world football has scored more goals than Kane this season
- He has already scored one more than Bayern’s top league scorer last season, Serge Gnabry
- One more Bundesliga goal will see Kane equal the tally of last season’s top Bundesliga scorers – Niclas Füllkrug and Christopher Nkunku
- Only Gerd Müller had previously scored as many goals in the first 10 matches of a season in Bundesliga history, doing so in 1968-69 (also 15)
- Only seven players have scored 30 goals or more in a season in Bundesliga history – Kane is already halfway there
- His highest Premier League total was 30, in the 2017/18 and 2022/23 seasons
- Kane is only two goals shy of the English goalscoring record in a Bundesliga season: Kevin Keegan (1978-79 for Hamburger SV) and Jadon Sancho (2019-20 for Dortmund) scored 17
- Kane became the first player in Bundesliga history to score a hat-trick in his first Klassiker appearance
- He is averaging a goal every 58 minutes in the Bundesliga
‘A good number nine can win you titles’ – what records can Kane break?
Kane is already having to fend off questions about Lewandowski’s record of 41 goals in a Bundesliga season.
The Polish international even said he was keeping his “fingers crossed” Kane would break the “crazy” record this season, when speaking to Bild last month.
But the England captain refused to get carried away when asked about the record after his latest treble.
“It’s still a long way away,” he said. “Robert was fantastic for the club and one of the best strikers in the world.
“After the first few games I said it would take a few games for the others to get to know me. I am not just a regular number nine who stays up all the time. I like to come deep. I feel like we are getting better each game and getting more of an understanding.
“Since I have been playing, I have been getting better. I am just 30, I feel I still have a lot of time left. I always back myself and with these guys around me, I know I will get a lot of chances.”
While Lewandowski’s record seems more than achievable, Kane is also on track to match the 50 goals Lionel Messi scored in 2011-12 for Barcelona in La Liga.
Messi’s 50 goals in 37 appearances is not only a La Liga record, but is also the most in a season by any player in one of Europe’s top five leagues since the formation of the Premier League in 1992-93.
That also underlines just how incredible Messi’s 73 goals in all competitions in the 2011-2012 season was – a tally that seems insurmountable.
Kane’s Bayern teammate Jamal Musiala said: “I expected high things. But probably not this high as he delivered so far.
“It is even easier than I thought, firstly to play with him, and I’m very happy, and hopefully he’s happy too.”
Former Bayern Munich and Germany legend Lothar Matthäus said: “For Bayern Munich it is important and for German football generally it is important that you have a good number nine. A good number nine can win you titles.
“We saw it with Lewandowski in Munich and Dortmund. In German football, you need a number nine.
“When you have so much ball possession around the area, you need somebody who scores. Harry Kane knows what to do, and he has done it very well in the first three months.”
Who is Serhou Guirassy?
Meanwhile, Guirassy’s goalscoring start to the season is even more remarkable when you realise what a relatively ordinary career he has had until now.
The 27-year-old was a France youth international but made his senior international debut for Guinea last season.
His 15 goals this season in all competitions – including one in the German Cup – is already his best ever season for goals.
It is his fourth consecutive season for hitting double figures – he scored 13 and 12 for Rennes in 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively, and 14 for Stuttgart last season, having never hit more than nine before that.
His previous spell in Germany, from 2016 to 2019, saw him score nine goals in 45 games for Cologne.
