Harry Kane cannot keep scoring goals now the football world is starting to remind a question which was not so easy to ask before: Is the Ballon d’Or in his reach at last? Having suffered heartbreak and almost certain death, as well as unprecedented consistency, the England captain is seemingly about to rewrite his own story goal by goal.
Kane finally revived his years-long silverware drought this year after Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga title, his first major trophy in 15 professional years. That innovation appears to have opened up a different dimension of motivation. As Bayern pursue the Champions League and England aim to become champions at the 2026 world cup, Kane may still play his part into it turning out to be one of the most taglines in football this century.
Nevertheless, when compared to his remarkable appearance, Kane was ranked 13th in the 2025 Ballon d’Or ranking and it was substantially lower than what many fans and specialists think he had every right to be in. However since that Paris event in which PSG’s Ousmane Dembele was the winner of the best award, the performances of Kane have gone through the roof. He was 32 and has now scored 20 goals in 12 matches in all competitions with Bayern including a marvelous performance in a 4-0 victory over Club Brugge at the Champions League.
Harry Kane can use his statistics as a strong argument on its own. He set the record in September as the quickest player in this century to score 100 goals to a club in the top five leagues across Europe and even more astonishingly he had done it in just 104 matches. He is currently on 105 goals in 108 games at Bayern, even faster in the first season of his time with the team than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo did in terms of numbers. Kane is already scoring goals in almost every state of 54 minutes also, which would have been virtually impossible a couple of years ago.
At home Kane has already scored 12 times in seven games in the Bundesliga this season. At that pace, he is expected to score 58 goals, which would shatter the all-time record of 41 goals in a season in the league of Robert Lewandowski. His figures in Europe are equally appalling. The Bayern player has scored 24 and assisted six times since his debut in June and July of the 2023 Champions League. Ruud van Nistelrooy is the only player to score more goals (48) in the first 60 match plays in the champions league.
Nevertheless, it is not simply a scoring point on Ballon d’Or case by Kane. The only thing that is making him standing out this season is how he has re-created the role of centre-forward. Kane has progressed to be not just a clinical finisher as he used to be but an all-out footballer a scorer, a creator and a leader all at once.
According to German legend and 1990 Ballon d’Or winner Lothar Matthaus, the best definition came in this Kane has changed the centre-forward game, that Manuel Neuer transformed goalkeeping. He is not being the best striker in the world at present but he is the most round. Matthaus pointed out how Vane could drop and dictate the pace and open up space to his teammates as these features make him as effective a player with the ball as he is a scorer.
His team members agree with him. Kingsley Coman, who played as a winger at Bayern appeared on Rio Ferdinand Presents and said of Harry, “Harry makes you better. He does not come here to score, he lays you in front of goal. He senses pleasing creating more than completing. The best thing is that he is able to do both. He is not selfless yet he makes 40 goals a year.
Given that Bayern, whose creative engine Jamal Musiala is unavailable this season due to injury in the summer, manager Vincent Kompany has given Kane increased licenses to freely wandering the pitch to dictate the offense. That change of tactic has made him the heartbeat of the team the connection between the midfield and the attack. He is acting as three or four players in a row as football analyst Raphael Honigstein observed. His sight, motion, wit are of a different level.
But the competition to get the 2026 Ballon d’Or will not come easy. Kane has been competing with Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe both having scorching season beginnings. Haaland has already registered 24 goals in 14 games with Manchester city and Norway whereas Mbappe has done the same with 18 with Real Madrid and France. Kane has 23 goals in his last 15 games, including his recent goals in England; this would keep him in the battle.
Nonetheless, as Matthaus noticed, I have never seen Haaland or Mbappe protect their own penalty area the way Kane did in the 88th minute against Dortmund. He is not a mere striker but a leader, a passer, and is a defender where necessary. The impact of Kane goes way beyond objectives. It is that entire action, that selfless fashion which may be the determining element on his side.
Lastly, there is a challenge and opportunity in history. The last English player to win Ballon d’Or was Michael Owen in 2001. Only three had done it before Stanley Matthews (1956), Bobby Charlton (1966) and Kevin Keegan (1978, 1979). To Kane, being added to that elite list would be the career defining one. However, as individual success admitted himself recently, personal awards are often the success of the team. It is a team trophy, best person in the team wins it, he said. Then there is a possibility if we end up winning big as a club and with England.
The stars could be shining through Harry Kane with Bayern leading their champions league group and England trailing with the six consecutive wins at the coastal run up to the 2026 world cup. Provided that he can continue in this shape and can take his teams to a title, he could finally have the Ballon d’Or the biggest prize that has to be so far out of reach of the gamer, will finally be at his grasp.
So far, Kane is down to earth, down to ground and one that is ruthless, goal-scoring, record-setting and one that has set a new standard on what it takes to be a modern day striker. The Ballon d’Or is not a given but one thing is very apparent, Harry Kane is not longer a part of the discourse but rather he is making the discourse.
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