- Harry Kane is on track to break Robert Lewandowski’s Bundesliga scoring record
- Thomas Tuchel is hoping the winter break can help Bayern push to win the title
- CHRIS SUTTON reveals which former team-mates were the teachers’ pets – It’s All Kicking Off
It was -10ºC in Munich this week but that wasn’t a problem for Harry Kane because he was on a golf course in southern Portugal.
Bayern manager Thomas Tuchel took his players to Faro for warm-weather training and during four days of double sessions, which included extensive work on set-pieces with former Chelsea coach Anthony Barry, there was time for Kane and Eric Dier — who arrived on loan from Tottenham last week — to get out on the course with Bayern’s biggest golf nut, Thomas Muller.
Off the pitch, Kane enjoyed spending the Bundesliga winter break with his family in the Caribbean and they have moved out of a hotel and into the old house of former Bayern defender Lucas Hernandez.
On the pitch, he has matched Robert Lewandowski’s record of 22 goals in the first half of the season and he has done it with one game to spare.
There is a feeling at Bayern that the England captain, 30, can break the Polish forward’s Bundesliga record of 41 goals in a season and power the team to the title in the process.
‘Robert has set the bar high,’ Kane told Kicker. ‘I’ve started well and when we get to March or April I hope to be a bit closer to his numbers.’
We know the record is secondary though, just as breaking Alan Shearer’s Premier League goals record was less important to Kane than accepting the Bayern challenge.
What Kane wants is his first league title and ‘Operation overtake Leverkusen’ could begin this weekend, with Xabi Alonso’s unbeaten leaders away at fourth-placed RB Leipzig on Saturday and Bayern at home to Werder Bremen on Sunday.
A slip from Leverkusen would see Bayern top by Wednesday if they win and in their midweek game in hand at home to struggling Union Berlin.
‘I just love training camps,’ Tuchel told German media in Portugal. ‘They give you the opportunity to stay together after a good session. You don’t go home so the energy that is generated stays in the group.’
Kane added: ‘Thomas told me his ideas, where he saw me in the team and how I could improve the side. He invested a lot — and that impressed me.’
Their relationship is almost one of skipper and manager for all that Kane doesn’t wear the armband in Bavaria.
The only crimp in the Bayern mini-break was an injury to Matthijs de Ligt which left Dayot Upamecano as the last man standing in the centre of defence, because Dier had to return to England ahead of the birth of his first child. He ought to be back for Sunday.
‘There are no limits for Harry,’ said Tuchel. ‘Whatever you say to him, he does it. He’s so humble, but on the pitch he becomes a shark.’
Kane’s combination of ruthless finisher and selfish runner has won hearts and minds in Munich. Now it’s time for the second half of his first season in Germany and the challenge of winning his first league. The Champions League is very much his target too.
Asked if he would prefer to win it at Wembley this year or Munich next season, Kane said: ‘I would take either of them, or both! Both feel like winning it at home, so to speak.’
Unsung hero Griezmann is still one of the world’s best
Antoine Griezmann was upset in 2018 when, after winning the World Cup with France and the Europa League with Atletico Madrid, he did not make the Ballon d’Or podium. These days he doesn’t much care.
What does it matter that you were 21st on last year’s Ballon d’Or list or didn’t make FIFA’s team of the year for 2023, announced this week, when you can enjoy moments such as the one on Thursday night during Atletico’s Spanish Cup tie at home to Real Madrid?
Griezmann started the evening out on the pitch with his three daughters, being applauded by supporters and team-mates for becoming Atletico Madrid’s all-time top scorer last week. Even Real Madrid players briefly broke the derby animosity to join in.
He finished it with a goal in the 100th minute of Atletico’s 4-2 extra-time win that ranks as the best scored in the Metropolitano Stadium since it opened seven years ago.
The noise made by the 67,000 home fans after Griezmann raced clear of Vinicius Junior and hit the roof of the net from the tightest of angles beats anything he might have felt among the DJs and dickie bows at the Grosvenor House.
Griezmann didn’t deserve the FIFA prize; that honour should have gone to Erling Haaland. But scoring more goals and making more assists than anyone else in La Liga in 2023 ought to have earned him a place in the team of the year.
No matter. At 32 he still seems as nimble and illusive to defenders as ever — wearing something akin to a cloak of invisibility which also seems to keep him out of the vision of anyone allowed to vote for football’s individual prizes.
Pressure mounts on Xavi
Sporting director Deco continues to cast a shadow over manager Xavi. He fancies replacing him with Barca B-team coach Rafa Marquez who is represented by Jorge Mendes, a man close to Deco and responsible for bringing Joao Cancelo and Joao Felix to Barcelona on deadline day.
Club president Joao Laporta addressed the players in midweek.
They sat behind desks at the training ground as Laporta adopted a stern headmaster look and Xavi stood alongside with all the authority of a browbeaten supply teacher.
Barcelona’s comeback to beat Unionistas 3-1 on Thursday means Xavi (below) lives to fight another day as head coach.
But with the club’s internal politics so set against him, he will need to win the cup to remain in charge beyond May.
