How Harry Kane fee compares to most expensive signings in Bayern Munich history

In the wake of Neymar’s record-breaking transfer to Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich’s legendary executive Uli Hoeness claimed that the perennial German champions would never match such vulgar figures.

“I don’t want to buy a player for €150m or €200m,” Hoeness declared in 2017, “I don’t want to join in such madness. That’s something that we will refuse totally at Bayern.”

Six years on, Bayern haven’t quite gone to the extremes of PSG’s splurge but Tottenham Hotspur have certainly dragged the Bavarians into the transfer madness during their dogged pursuit of Harry Kane.

With the England captain moving to Germany for a nine-digit sum, here’s how his move compares to Bayern’s history of transfers.

Bayern Munich have been sniffing around Kane ever since Robert Lewandowski left a yawning chasm in the team’s frontline last summer. Spurs were always confident that Kane would remain in north London in 2022 but the contract extension that has been on the table for the last 12 months was never signed.

As Kane entered the final year of his deal with Tottenham in June, Bayern took a more proactive approach to signing Kane. Spurs may have denied receiving an initial bid of €70m (£60.1m) but Bayern were quick to table a second offer of €80m (£68.7m).

The Bavarians upped the ante once more, bidding in excess of the club-record sum that brought Lucas Hernandez to Germany in 2019, as negotiations dragged into the second week of August.

Sir Alex Ferguson infamously described dealing with Tottenham’s chairman Daniel Levy as “more painful than hip surgery”.

However, Bayern didn’t let the pang of frustration get the better of them as a fourth and final bid of €100m (£86.4m) was finally accepted. Kane had told Tottenham that he would not leave the club once the new season began but Bayern snuck the deal through just 24 hours before Spurs face Brentford on Sunday.

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Kane is not only Bayern’s biggest transfer of all time but he eclipses the fee paid by any other Bundesliga club for a single player. In a snapshot of their gross financial dominance over the division, nine of the 11 most expensive arrivals in German football history have been purchased by Bayern.

Prior to Kane’s arrival, Bayern’s three most expensive acquisitions were centre-backs. Kim Min-jae became the third costliest transfer in the club’s history when Bayern triggered his €50m (£43.2m) release clause after an imperious title-winning season at Napoli.

The aforementioned Lucas shattered Bayern’s transfer record when he swapped Madrid for Munich in 2019. Across four muddled seasons, the World Cup winner missed 65 games through injury for his club side. Bayern effectively funded Kim’s arrival by selling Lucas to PSG for £38.8m earlier in July.

Matthijs de Ligt may have started out as an attacking midfielder in Ajax’s youth teams dreaming of being Cristiano Ronaldo, but the former Juventus defender – who was a teammate of the Portuguese forward in Turin – has been one of the game’s most promising young centre-backs across recent years.

Bayern paid an initial sum of £57.8m to prise De Ligt away from Serie A last summer but the fee could match Lucas’ total if all add-ons are met. The wheels of De Ligt’s transfer were greased by Lewandowski’s departure a year ago, as Bayern managed to extract more than £38m out of Barcelona for a player turning 34.

Unlike Kane, Lewandowski arrived at Bayern without a transfer fee after running down his contract with Klassiker rivals Borussia Dortmund.

Kane, however, is not the first Premier League forward on which Bayern have splurged in recent years. Leroy Sane had to amend the giant back tattoo of himself in a Manchester City kit when he belatedly returned to the Bundesliga in 2020. Sane had been scheduled to join Bayern the year before only to rupture his cruciate ligament in the 2019 Community Shield, thereby delaying his move and reducing the fee.

Sane may have won consecutive Premier League titles at Pep Guardiola’s side, but he only cost half of what Kane has set Bayern back as the Bavarians became the latest victims of the madness in the modern transfer market.

LISTEN NOW TO 90MIN’S TALKING TRANSFERS PODCAST

On this week’s edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders is joined by Toby Cudworth, Graeme Bailey and Sean Walsh to discuss the ever-changing Moises Caicedo saga, Harry Kane’s move to Bayern Munich and more! 

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