Michael Owen is still bitter that Harry Kane chose Bayern Munich over the Premier League

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Harry Kane is flourishing at Bayern Munich and Michael Owen is clearly not happy about it. Speaking to Goal, he warned that teams like Real Madrid and FC Barcelona should be wary of signing the England

captain, saying that he is “dead money”.

Let us go over exactly what he said and why it is so outrageously bitter.

Assertion #1: Kane did not want Bayern Munich in the first place

If you asked Harry Kane eight years ago ‘do you think you’ll end up at Bayern Munich?’ He would probably have said no. Maybe a Manchester United, maybe a Manchester City, maybe even a Real Madrid or a Barcelona, but I wouldn’t think Bayern Munich would have been in his top half-a-dozen teams that he would have envisaged playing at.

Owen makes it seem like Kane settled for a provincial team in the Kazakh 3rd division, not one of the biggest names in the sport. Here, he seems to assume that Kane has the same narrow view of football that Owen clearly holds. Harry Kane would have to be a grade A idiot to not include Bayern Munich as one of the top five destinations in his career.

The fact that Owen would put a basket case team like Manchester United on the list shows how unserious he is. He even admits this.

However, Manchester United were really struggling at the time, so do you want to go to a club that are looking like they aren’t going to win much? I don’t know if they had the money as well. Manchester City had already just bought [Erling] Haaland. [Kylian] Mbappe was signing for Real Madrid, at a certain point again when he could have left. [robert] Lewandowski at Barcelona. It needs to be a perfect storm.

Manchester City did not have Erling Haaland eight years ago. Presumably, he’s talking about 2023, when Kane actually made his move. The implication is obvious, that Kane only moved to Bayern because all the other obvious paths were taken.

However, this ignores the obvious fact that Bayern were negotiating with Kane long before the move materialized in the summer of 2023. It started as far back as 2021/22, when Robert Lewandowski was still at the club. This was before Erling Haaland had made his move to Man City. Kane clearly had Bayern on the mind long before those moves (Lewy to Barça, Haaland to City) materialized, even if Owen wants to frame it as otherwise.

Assertion #2: He does not have much time left

The problem with Harry Kane now, he’s still an incredible player, but it really is dead money if you go and buy Harry Kane. You are buying for the here and now and how many years are you going to get? One, two, three, four? I don’t know. He is obviously showing no sign of ageing. Who knows.

Kane is literally only 32-years-old, and he is the best striker in the world right now. Assuming any team could buy him, which Bayern would never allow, they would love to have someone of his caliber. For teams near the top of their game, he could be the difference between winning and not winning titles.

It’s no wonder that, despite Owen’s doubts, Barcelona seriously considered Kane as their replacement for Robert Lewandowski this coming summer. They only backed off because of financial issues, not because Kane could run out of steam at any minute.

Realistically, Kane’s playstyle does not rely on any pace or insane physicality. There is no reason why he couldn’t remain at the top of his game for another five or six years, if not more. Lewandowski did it, Cristiano did it, Messi did it, and no one ever called them dead money. Why would Kane be any different?

Assertion #3: His records mean more in the Premier League

I was very vocal about it at the time, I would love to have seen him stay in the Premier League – do another year at Tottenham and if you really want to go, he would have been on a Bosman. I felt like he had the full set of aces in his hand and gave them away quite cheaply. I said so at the time.

He has gone and won a league and scored a load of goals, broken a lot of records, but I think that would have held a lot more weight in the Premier League – he would be really close to Alan Shearer’s record now. But that’s hindsight.

Here we come to the crux of the matter, and the one thing English pundits really can’t digest. To a footballer like Kane, a Bundesliga title means 100x more than Alan Shearer’s goalscoring record.

Frankly, the record is not that much of a big deal, and Haaland is almost sure to break it in a few more years, provided he also stays in the Premier League (not guaranteed, as we’ve seen with Kane). Rather than waste another one of his prime years playing for the dumpster that is Spurs (sorry, Spurs) he went to a team that can actually win things and challenge for the biggest trophies, like the UEFA Champions League — which is still worth more than any Premier League title.

It’s hard to see what is so tragic about this. What else could Kane have done? Man City already had Haaland, he couldn’t move to Chelsea or Arsenal without being vilified by Spurs supporters. Manchester United is a club for masochists and mercenaries, which leaves… who, exactly? Aston Villa? Leeds United? West Ham? Everton?

Harry Kane’s path took him out of the Premier League, and his career is doing better for it. It’s high time that ex-England pundits like Owen get a grip and acknowledge what he’s achieving now, rather than dwelling on what could have been.

If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…