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Munich — SOMETIMES the scripts write themselves. And then there are times when they seemingly take a wicked turn and delight in the perversion of delivering a dark farce.
For 36 hours, many citizens of Munich had worked themselves into a frenzy over the on-off arrival of Harry Kane. And here we finally were at Bayern’s own Allianz Arena in Munich with Kane thrust straight into the squad with the chance to win the German Super Cup, last season’s champions Bayern taking on the Cup winners RB Leipzig.
We could all see where this was heading: thirteen years at Spurs and no trophies. Less than twenty-four hours at Bayern he would have collected his first. Albeit he was starting in the bench, after a manic Friday travelling here, the stage was nonetheless set.
For, as we’re given to understand, Bayern simply have to turn up in Germany to win.
But then RB Leipzig are an upstart little club not given much truck to the established order, having been in non-league football 15 years ago. And their Spanish striker Dani Olmo clearly wasn’t up for adopting the expected protocol for these occasions.
He scored his first within three minutes, Bayern making a terrible mess of clearing a free-kick. His second came on 44 minutes, a neat touch, perhaps unintentional, fooling Matthijs de Ligt. Bayern were 2-0 down and being schooled in their own backyard.
What might be said was that never has a team looked in more need of a world class No.9 than Bayern after 18-year-old Mathys Tel missed chance after chance.
His was the unfortunate role of fall guy. Yet despite the ensuing debacle, it was 59 minutes before the crowd got really restless. ‘Harry Kane! Harry Kane!’ came the cry from the terraces.
Kane sprinted back from his warm up towards the bench and the crowd rose as one, knowing what to expect. Now the whole stadium joined as one. ‘Harry Kane! Harry Kane!’ they implored.
A few minutes later they had their wish. ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ the MC announced in English. ‘A magic moment. Welcome the new No.9 of Bayern Munich: Harry….’
‘Kane!’ roared back the crowd.
Sadly, the magic moment didn’t last. Within seven minutes Bayern’s Noussair Mazraoui handled in the area and Olmo confidently converted the penalty. At least we had our hat trick hero and man of the match.
As for Kane, there was little to report. He tried to cajole his new teammates at 0-3. He ran into a couple of blind allies and was smothered by defenders.
It was utterly underwhelming, far from the excitement generated throughout the day.
That excitement was there in the eyes of the nine-year-old boy with Germanic blond hair straight from central casting who had turned up the Barmherzige Brüder Hospital on Friday evening to catch a glimpse of his hero.
He had a handmade sign that simply read ‘Harry Kane marked out in felt tip, the innocence of the gesture a throwback to all our eternal childhoods as football fans.
He was among those cheering and swarming around Kane’s club Audi before it descended into the underground car park late on Friday night to complete his medical.
It was also evident, in a more business-like way, in the club shop staff, who had beaten their daily sales target for new shirts within a few hours of opening, those Kane No.9 shirts flying off the shelves. They hadn’t seen anything like this before, they said.
It was almost palpable in the swagger of the crowds walking up to the Allianz Arena, that spaceship like stadium, many of them bearing those new shirts with Kane emblazoned on the back.
It was certainly there in the huge sigh of relief emanating from the Bayern executives on Saturday morning when their media team was finally posting the news that Harry Kane was a Bayern player. — dailymail.
Online Reporter