FCB's eleven-minute champion: The Harry Kane curse strikes one last time

FC Bayern Munich footballer Harry Kane is under a curse. But it will soon be broken. He will shine one last time against RB Leipzig.

It's a bit as if fate were fighting back with its last ounce of strength. Because, so the story goes in the superstitious world of football, Harry Kane is cursed: The captain of the England national team may have scored countless goals (387) in his career, helped his teams out of countless jams, and is currently arguably one of the most reliable penalty takers on the planet, but he has never won a real title (apart from the Audi Cup).

That's why May 3, 2025, should go down in history as the day Harry Kane finally clinched his first real title in his already long football career – and broke the curse. It practically no longer weighs on the 31-year-old. Defending champions Bayer Leverkusen not only have to make up the points deficit, but also have a goal difference that's 30 goals worse. So, it would have actually taken a win against RB Leipzig for FC Bayern to mathematically seal the German championship. Better safe than sorry.

Actually. As it happens, things turned out quite differently. For just eleven minutes after Leroy Sané made it 3-2, Kane got to experience what it feels like to win a championship. Otherwise, FC Bayern didn't look title-worthy, while the Rasenballsport players were all the more rebellious. Leipzig held a surprise 2-0 halftime lead. After Thomas Müller was substituted, Bayern equalized with a lightning double. Sané's goal then marked the start of the eleven minutes of championship glory, which Leipzig's Yussuf Poulsen shattered with his goal on the final whistle to make it 3-3.

A "crazy, crazy decision"

That this would happen was already apparent beforehand. After all, the result and how it came about fit FC Bayern's current situation quite well. Coach Vincent Kompany had to somehow form a defensive line from his infirmary. In the end, the decision fell on a quartet that will likely never play together again – because one half is likely to leave the club. The sizzling-blonde Sasha Boey will likely have to find a new employer, while Eric Dier actively sought out a new contract and chose AS Monaco.

And Kane? He was only allowed to watch the spectacle from the stands of the Red Bull Arena. A week earlier, in the home game against Mainz 05, he had received his fifth yellow card in the competition – and was thus suspended. He had called it a "crazy, crazy decision." The 31-year-old himself had said a week ago that missing out on the supposed championship crown against Leipzig was, in a way, part of his story.

The TV cameras captured Kane suffering for his teammates for most of the game. Salvation only came with Sané's goal; he was finally able to celebrate. And, luckily for him, someone took pity on him. The rules actually stipulate that suspended players are not allowed to go near the dugout for 30 minutes before, during, or after the match. But for the final minutes, Kane was seen on the sidelines, eagerly awaiting the title. That was until Poulsen equalized to make it 3-3. After that, images went around the world that people would have preferred to have spared Kane: Kane standing next to the dugout with a grim expression and his arms crossed. The curse, in fact.

59 years of pain

He's famous for this bad luck. With the €100 million, FC Bayern not only acquired a reliable goal-scoring machine in the summer of 2023, but also this running joke. For two decades, Kane tried to somehow win a trophy with his beloved club, Tottenham Hotspur. Although he was top scorer in the Premier League several times, Spurs hadn't won a trophy in ages.

Added to that is the fact that Kane also plays for the English national team. This is the national team that, as is well known, hasn't won a single World Cup on home soil since the 1966 World Cup, and which celebrates its success more gloriously than any other nation. "30 years of hurt" has now turned into 59 years of pain – even the 2021 and 2024 European Championship finals couldn't change that. Kane scored prolifically in the tournaments, but his teammates didn't always score in penalty shootouts.

A move to Bayern seemed like the safest option. Before Kane's arrival, Munich had won the German championship ten times in a row. But, to everyone's surprise, the trophy went to Leverkusen last year – for the first time in their club's history. Meanwhile, Munich experienced their first title-less season since 2012. The Kane curse, so it was joked.

But despite the draw against RB Leipzig, this running joke will be a thing of the past: either this evening, if Bayer doesn't win in Freiburg (5:30 p.m./DAZN and in the live ticker at ntv.de) , or if Munich beats Gladbach at home next week. Until then, Kane and FC Bayer will remain in an "in-between situation," as Müller put it on Sky. "I feel like I'm the champion, but we're still not champions."