The former Tottenham man has been an instant hit in Bavaria and is now just a few goals away from immortality
Harry Kane's debut season at Bayern Munich has exceeded expectations. Even as his team-mates have faltered around him, with Die Roten currently battling against the humiliation of a trophyless campaign, Kane has made the goals flow, the fans cheer and the records tumble.
He is no stranger to the latter, of course. Kane is both Tottenham and England's all-time leading goalscorer and he has not ruled out returning to the Premier League at some point in future, so he can snatch that particular record from Alan Shearer too.
On Tuesday night, he marked another historic milestone. By ignoring Jude Bellingham's attempts to put him off and smashing home a penalty against Real Madrid, Kane became the Englishman with the most direct goal involvements in a single Champions League campaign, surpassing Steven Gerrard and David Beckham in the process.
That feat was just the latest in a growing list of records the centre-forward has smashed recently – and he'll have one or two more in his crosshairs as the season speeds towards a close. Keeping track of all of this history-making has been tough, so below GOAL recaps every milestone Kane has reached in what has been a truly extraordinary campaign.
Getty ImagesElectric start
At Tottenham, Kane garnered a reputation as being somewhat of a slow starter, regularly struggling to score in August. Fortunately for Bayern, there was no sign of any summer hangover during the opening stages of his career in Bavaria.
After netting four times in his first four Bundesliga games, Kane exploded in a 7-0 victory over Vfl Bochum, notching a fine hat-trick to take his tally up to seven. That was a record start for a Bayern player, with Mario Mandzukic, Miroslav Klose and the legendary Gerd Muller only managing a goal per game in their first five league outings.
The goals continued to flow after that too. By the 10-game mark the Englishman already had 15 Bundesliga strikes. That bettered the 13 Klaus Matischak managed during the same period of time in the 1963-64 campaign.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesToppling Nkunku in 11 games
The 2022-23 Bundesliga Golden Boot race was a strange one. A lack of free-scoring strikers meant that RB Leipzig's Christopher Nkunku finished top of the pile alongside Niclas Fullkrug, despite both men missing sizeable chunks of the season due to injury.
And it didn't take long for Kane to better the 16 strikes the pair managed this time around. After just 11 matches, he had already helped himself to a stunning 17 goals, rocketing to the top of the scoring charts amid stiff competition from the incredible Serhou Guirassy.
Getty ImagesFastest to 20 goals
After leaving Nkunku and Fullkrug in the dust, Kane soon hunted down the 20-goal mark in the Bundesliga. Back-to-back hat tricks against Darmstadt and Borussia Dortmund helped him reach that particular milestone after just 15 games – with the 30-year-old sealing the achievement with an excellent brace in a 3-0 win over Stuttgart.
Before Kane was even born, Hamburg icon Uwe Seeler completed the same feat in 21 matches during the 1963-64 campaign. That the Bayern star managed to do it with little over half of the season completed is astounding.
Getty ImagesBetter than Sancho and Keegan
Kane is not the first Englishman to capture German hearts with a scintillating Bundesliga season. Kevin Keegan's exploits at Hamburg in the 1978-79 campaign won him the Ballon d'Or, while Jadon Sancho's trailblazing decision to join Borussia Dortmund eventually earned him a £73 million ($91m) move to Manchester United.
Keegan and Sancho's highest-scoring seasons both saw them reach 17 league goals, a tally Kane demolished in just 12 matches. For now, Sancho remains the most prolific Englishman in Bundesliga history with 40 goals, but it surely won't be long until Kane claims that honour too.