Good things come to those who wait, and that certainly proved to be the case for Harry Kane and Eric Dier this past weekend.
Back when they were just two young Englishmen looking to make a name for themselves in football, Kane and Dier became two integral parts of Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur.
They helped Spurs challenge for titles and even competed in several tournaments for the English national team, but they never once managed to secure Tottenham’s first trophy since 2008.
After losing to Chelsea in the 2015 League Cup final, Tottenham proceeded to push for the league title in the following two years, but came up short both times to Leicester City and Chelsea.
They made it all the way to the biggest game in club football, only to lose to Liverpool in the 2019 Champions League final.
Desperate for silverware, Kane joined German giants Bayern Munich for a Bundesliga-record €110 million in 2023, whilst Dier joined Bayern in January 2024.
Kane won the European Golden Shoe with a stunning 36 goals, and Dier formed an impressive central defensive pairing alongside Matthijs de Ligt.
However, both players came up empty-handed as Bayer Leverkusen ended Bayern’s run of 11 straight Bundesliga championships.
After a trophyless 2023/24 campaign, Bayern struggled to find a replacement for Thomas Tuchel.
They eventually settled on Vincent Kompany, who was coming off a two-year spell with Burnley that had seen him achieve promotion and suffer relegation.
Despite his lack of experience, the Belgian manager was able to steady the ship and lead Bayern to a 13-match unbeaten run to commence the Bundesliga campaign.
The Bavarians have shored up their backline and become a much more difficult team to score against.
Having conceded 45 goals in 34 league matches in 2023/24, Bayern have only let in 32 goals in 34 this season.
But perhaps most impressively, that renewed defensive solidity hasn’t come at the cost of their attacking profligacy – they are just one goal away from matching last season’s tally of 94 goals scored.
Whilst other summer signings such as Hiroki Ito and Joao Palhinha have struggled to deliver, Michael Olise has impressed.
After joining from Crystal Palace for €60 million, Olise emerged as a vital cog in attack, capable of cutting inside, wreaking havoc from distance, and teeing up a teammate with an incisive through ball.
He offered a different profile to Kingsley Coman and Leroy Sane. Oliseis is top of the Bundesliga charts with 13 assists, whilst Kane leads the league with 24 goals.
This, combined with Leverkusen’s decline, has resulted in Bayern reclaiming their spot as German football’s top dogs.
It was only natural that Leverkusen were going to drop down a level after achieving an unbeaten domestic double, and they have done just that by drawing 11 of their 32 league matches.
Bayern have been able to deal with various injuries to key players such as Jamal Musiala thanks to shrewd rotations from Kompany and in-game substitutions.
Despite losing to Inter Milan in the Champions League quarter-finals, they picked up steam during the home stretch of the campaign by taking 14 points from a potential 18 over the past two months.
As Bayern looked set to prevail 3-2 in Leipzig on Saturday, Kane left the stands for the touchline and braced for his first-ever trophy, only for Yussuf Poulsen to equalise in the final second.
But a dream delayed is not a dream denied – the following day, Freiburg held Leverkusen to a 2-2 draw to hand the title back to Bayern with two games left.
Watching on from a nearby pub, Kane and Dier shared a hearty embrace to celebrate their first-ever trophy, and likely their last together.
Kane is confirmed to lose two of his best mates in the Bayern dressing room – Dier is set to join Monaco on a free transfer, while Thomas Muller will depart Bayern after a quarter-century at the club.
However, England’s all-time leading scorer will content himself with the fact that he not only managed to end his long-awaited trophy drought, but he managed to do so with a lifelong friend.
