Harry Kane looks at his very best at this World Cup. It may seem a trite observation, but England’s tournament appearances have often come at the wrong time for the forward.
At the European Championship two years ago, he was plagued by a back injury that he carried into the tournament. He spent the competition several levels below his best and had to be substituted after just an hour of the final against Spain in Berlin.
At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, he scored just twice in five games. Kane looked heavy-legged throughout and missed a late penalty against France as England were eliminated in the quarter-final. In fact, even when his performances have withstood statistical scrutiny, as they did in 2020 and 2018, Kane has still been subjected to criticism — either for chances not taken or because he just attracts a particular kind of grumbling.
But at this World Cup, so far so good. Kane scored twice in England’s 4-2 win over Croatia and looks to be the attacking centre of a vibrant side. He looks every bit the player he was for Bayern Munich during the domestic season.
Partly, that’s good luck. The injury he suffered before Euro 2024 was badly timed and aggravated by Bayern’s participation in that season’s Champions League semi-final. Kane played the second leg of that tie against Real Madrid despite considerable pain and was replaced shortly before the end when, according to then-Bayern head coach Thomas Tuchel, his back “completely seized up”.
He should not have been on the pitch, but he was a €100million (£87m or $115m) centre-forward and, when a European Cup is on the line, they have to play.
Kane missed the final two games of the season, arriving at the European Championship badly out of rhythm.
Generally, the role of injuries in Kane’s career is over-stressed. While he became known as a fragile player in England, primarily due to a series of ankle problems between 2016 and 2019 while at Tottenham, he has not suffered a significant injury in nearly six years and has only missed eight Bayern games since joining the club in 2023.
This season has passed without incident. Minor calf and ankle issues aside, Kane has had an uninterrupted year, and it shows. He also seems to be reaping the benefits of Bayern’s season in several different ways.
The first is his form.
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He has spent the season playing a pivotal role in one of European football’s most dangerous attacks. And while he always had an expansive playmaking function at Tottenham and during his first two seasons in Bavaria, this year his role has broadened.
The 32-year-old has always been pitched, positionally, as somewhere between a No 9 and No 10, while also performing aspects of a No 8’s role. Last season for Bayern, he regularly dropped between his centre-backs or received passes directly from his goalkeeper, in a way expected of a more deep-lying midfielder. His defensive contribution grew, too.
More importantly, it was invaluable to an England team that has a lot of dynamic players, but not as many progressive passers. Tuchel’s England need Kane to play this way. Fortunately, he has been doing that all season and such continuity is a natural virtue.
The other, more subtle benefit at work here is Kane’s schedule and how much lighter it now is. The Bundesliga is a physically less attritional competition, certainly, but to an incalculable degree. The easier observation is that he plays fewer games and fewer minutes.
There are only 18 teams in the league and 34 games in a season. In each of his last three seasons at Spurs, he played well over 3,000 minutes in the Premier League alone: 3,087 in 2020-21, 3,187 in 2021-22, and 3,408 in 2022-23. In his last season in England before moving to Germany, he actually played over 4,000 minutes of club football in all competitions.
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His burden is greatly reduced. None of his three Bundesliga seasons has seen him exceed 3,000 minutes. In 2025-26, he started just 25 games, made substitute appearances in a further six and, in total, played for only 2,382 minutes, which, among all seasons when he was considered a starting player, is the lowest of his career. Like every other player in Germany, he also had the advantage of a three-week winter break during December and January.
It’s true Bayern tend to be involved in European competition for longer each season, but that adds less mileage than assumed. Kane played 1,041 Champions League minutes in 2025-26, but that is just 300 minutes more than he played at Tottenham in 2022-23.
There are some obvious reasons why.
The size of the league, of course, but the strength of Bayern relative to their competition, domestically and in Europe. Even with the expanded format of the latter, there are relatively few games for which Kane needs to be on the pitch for 90 minutes. In April alone, for instance, with Vincent Kompany’s side having secured the title, he played for only 45 minutes against Mainz, Stuttgart and Heidenheim.
It’s a luxury of playing for a club in Bayern’s position. Were Kane still at Tottenham, or playing for a club competing across multiple fronts at that stage of a season, it’s inconceivable that a forward of his quality would only be used for 45 minutes at a time.
And it’s not just him. As a neat quirk, Michael Olise (2,320) and Luis Diaz (2,453) each played similar minutes this season and were used in roughly the same way through April and May. Both were named man of the match in their respective first games at this World Cup and have arrived in excellent form.
A coincidence, perhaps, but possibly a correlation that describes the same advantages that the England captain is profiting from. Kane will turn 33 next month. Most likely, this will be his last World Cup and his last chance to place himself alongside his country’s immortals from 1966.
For once, fortune and circumstance seem in his favour.