Can Harry Kane Break Lewandowski’s 41-Goal Record?
Robert Lewandowski’s 41-goal Bundesliga season for Bayern Munich in 2020-21 still feels like something out of a different sport. A record that stood for decades, thought to belong forever to Gerd Müller, was dragged into a new era by a Polish No.9 who refused to recognise limits.
No one has touched that number since. Plenty have tried. Harry Kane came as close as anyone in terms of sheer devastation in front of goal, yet still finished those campaigns four or five strikes short of Lewandowski’s historic mark.
Kane’s Bayern numbers are spectacular in their own right. One hundred and forty-six goals in 149 appearances, a scoring rate that would define most careers. In Munich, the so‑called “trophy curse” that haunted him at Tottenham has been buried under silverware and Golden Boots. Three of them in a row, in fact, since he left north London. At 33, he stands two goals away from becoming a Bundesliga centurion.
The question now is not whether Kane is a success in Germany. That argument is over. The debate circles around something more brutal: can he ever touch Lewandowski’s 41?
Dietmar Hamann, speaking to GOAL in association with ToonieBet, doesn’t duck the romance of the chase, but he does cut through the fantasy.
“That record stood for 40 years or 50 years and everybody said it's not possible to do it,” Hamann said. “But then Lewandowski found another gear and beat Gerd Muller by one.”
Kane, Hamann points out, has already produced “two, three fantastic seasons” and still landed just shy of the magic number. The Englishman’s explosive first half of that record-chasing campaign – “17, 18, 19 goals in the first half of the season,” as Hamann recalls – briefly opened the door to the impossible. Talk started. Could he really do it?
Hamann’s answer then, as now, came with a hard dose of scheduling reality.
“I said, I think it all depends on the Champions League,” he explained. “Because if they go deep in the Champions League, there will be one, two, three games where he won't play or maybe come on or doesn't even play at all.
“And I think if you want to beat it, you probably have to play at least 30, probably 32, maybe all the games. And with the extra games in the Champions League now, he's a year older now.”
That is the crux. To chase Lewandowski, you almost need a perfect storm: fitness, form, and a calendar stripped of distractions. Bayern rarely live in that world. They expect to go long in Europe. They expect to protect their stars when the league is all but wrapped up and a Champions League semi-final looms.
“If they get knocked out in the group stage, which is not going to happen, I think he probably stands a chance to do it,” Hamann said. “But they won't because he'll probably go deep in the Champions League again.
“And I think that counts against him when it comes to the record because when you play a league game where you've probably already won the league in between two Champions League semi-finals or quarter-finals, I think the chances are very high that he won't play. They don't risk him and that doesn't help him.
“So is he capable of doing it? Yes, of course he is. I don't think he will do that.”
The record, then, remains Lewandowski’s mountain. But there is another summit in Kane’s sights.
Bayern are already working on a new contract for the England captain as he enters the final year of his current deal. If he extends his stay at the Allianz Arena by a couple more seasons, he could match another of Lewandowski’s feats: five consecutive Bundesliga Golden Boots. For a player once accused of choosing comfort over challenge when he left the Premier League, that would be a thunderous answer.
Hamann sees that path clearly.
“Absolutely,” he said when asked if Kane is destined to hit that mark if he stays fit. “And obviously he's an ambassador. He's great. He's just a very likeable character. And obviously they all appreciate the people, not only the Bayern Munich fans, but they all appreciate having the England captain playing in the Bundesliga.
“And I think he's very settled there. They talk about a new contract. I think his family and his missus are very happy and settled in Munich. So that's good to hear.”
A content striker is often a ruthless one. Kane’s baseline, in Hamann’s eyes, is terrifying.
“If he stays fit, then he probably starts with 20 or 25 goals. Every goal he passes is probably a bonus. But I can't see a scenario where he doesn't score 20, 25 goals, which most years wins him that big Golden Boot.
“He’ll win it again if he stays fit. And he's just a remarkable finisher. Obviously, we all talk about his penalty-taking skills. But his finishing with both feet is just... I'm not sure there's been a finisher in the history of football who's more clinical when it comes to chances in front of goal.”
Lewandowski’s 41 may remain a monument to a once-in-a-generation season. Kane’s legacy in Germany, though, is being built on relentless accumulation: Golden Boots, records, milestones, all stacked one on top of another.
If he signs that new deal and keeps walking out at the Allianz, the question may soon shift from whether he can catch Lewandowski’s single-season peak to something even more daunting: how much of Bayern’s modern scoring history will end up with Harry Kane’s name carved into it?
