Kane can’t stop scoring – is the Ballon d’Or within reach?

Harry Kane’s trophy drought came to an end with Munich, Bayern’s triumphant title in his 15th year of playing professionally.

It made it easier for him to pursue other significant prizes, including those for his club, his hometown, and himself.

The England striker was only 13th in the 2025 Ballon d’Ors in September despite having the best form of his life and never placed above 10th on the prestigious list.

Ousmane Dembele, who was named the world’s best player in Paris in the month that followed, seems to have taken Kane’s game to a whole new, previously impossible level.

With a 4-0 Champions League victory over Club Brugge, the 32-year-old increased his goal total this season to 20 in 12 club games across all competitions.

Kane is aware that if he keeps up his winning streak, wins the biggest club competition in Europe, and helps England win the World Cup in the summer, he will be in the running for the 2026 Ballon d’Or.

The former Tottenham Hotspur hero earlier this month said, “I would love to win it for sure, it would be an accumulation of doing something great individually and as a team.” “It would be almost the ideal season,” he said.

Michael Owen, the last English player to play for Liverpool in 2001, was the last to capture the prize. There have been only three others – Stanley Matthews (1956), Bobby Charlton (1966) and Kevin Keegan (1978, 1979).

This could be his best chance ever given how he has just started his third Bundesliga campaign.

In just 104 games, Kane scored 105 goals in 108 games, making him the fastest player this century to do so for a team playing in one of Europe’s top five leagues.

Since the start of 2023-24, no other player has scored that many goals in Europe’s top five leagues.

England’s record scorer is averaging a goal every 54 minutes, but neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo, who needed 17 and 13 goals in a season, managed to score 20.

He is on pace to score 58 goals with 12 goals already scored in his previous seven Bundesliga games.

To surpass Robert Lewandowski’s record-breaking 41 goals in a single Bundesliga season, Kane needs another 30 in the final 27 games.

In Europe, the story is similar. He has scored more goals (24 goals and six assists) than any other player in the competition since his first Champions League appearance for Bayern in September 2023.

Kane’s Ballon d’Or case, however, goes beyond just goals; other elite goalscorers can’t match his hard work when he drops off the ball and off the ball.

In his 1990 Ballon d’Or winner’s column for Sky Germany, Lothar Matthaus wrote, “Kane has reinvented the center-forward game, as Manuel Neuer did with goalkeepers about a decade and a half ago.

“I don’t see a better striker anywhere right now,” he said. Not just because of his goals, but also because of the positions and versatility he plays.

Kane also exhibits qualities as a passer, dribbler, and tackler. He also contributes to the goalscoring, playmaking, box-to-box, and tackle corpse.

Kane’s team-mates do not overlook his ability to play with others while also upholding his incredible scoring record.

His former Bayern team-mate Kingsley Coman said on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast earlier this year, “Harry makes you better – he is not here just to finish, he will put you in front of the goal.”

He seems to enjoy scoring as much as finding a really nice pass. Amazing is that he can do both. One of the strikers is the one who enjoys the simplest play.

People claim that a problem arises when a striker is selfish. However, Harry consistently scores 40 or more goals per year.

After Jamal Musiala’s leg and ankle broke during the summer, which gave Bayern their main attacking force, manager Vincent Kompany changed Kane’s play to give him almost total attacking freedom on the pitch.

Raphael Honigstein, a member of the BBC Football Daily Euro Leagues podcast, said, “He’s playing like three or four different players on the pitch at once. That’s invaluable.”

Kane, however, is not the only current striker in the field who wants to be called the world’s best player.

Kylian Mbappe has 18 goals in 14 games for Real Madrid and France while Erling Haaland has 24 in 14 games this season for Manchester City and Norway.

Kane has 23 goals in 15 games, including his most recent for England.

Matthaus feels neither contribute to the pitch as Kane, despite Haaland scoring in 12 consecutive matches and Mbappe ending his most recent run at 11th.

After Kane’s all-action display against [Borussia] Dortmund], he wrote, “I’ve never seen Haaland and Mbappe slide in their own penalty area like Kane did in the 88th minute.”

“I also don’t see Mbappe and Haaland making passes lasting 50 meters or more. Kane can’t play any of the other two’s chip shots, “I haven’t seen them.”

However, when Messi and Ronaldo aren’t awarded the Ballon d’Or, a winner typically comes from a team that has enjoyed success in the Champions League, Euros, or World Cup.

Kane remarked, “The best player on that team wins,” calling it a “team trophy.”

There is a chance to do that if I continue to do what I’m doing and our club and country have a successful season.

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