It was the second time Daniel Levy’s name had flashed up on Harry Kane’s phone that day – unusual for a chairman who prefers to do things face to face. The first call had come as the Tottenham striker was making his way to Stansted Airport, in the early hours of August 11. “Nothing’s agreed yet, Harry,” Levy had told his star player on that occasion. “Head home. I’ll be in touch if anything changes.”
Six hours later – holed up in a family home, a stone’s throw from the airport – Kane’s phone was vibrating with that name again. This time, Levy had very different news. After weeks of negotiations, media speculation and an endless flow of opinions on TV shows, radio phone-ins and social media, Kane was free to board a private jet to Bavaria, where his new life awaited.
At Bayern Munich’s glass-fronted Sabener Strasse training complex later that evening, contracts were carefully checked and signed, champagne bottles were popped and the news was finally made official: Harry Kane, captain of England and the Premier League’s second highest scorer of all time, was now Germany’s most expensive footballer.
“It was a bit of a mad experience to be honest,” Kane, 30, now tells FourFourTwo of that life-changing 24 hours. “I didn’t really know what to expect, as I’d been at Spurs for 19 years and was really happy there. So I was stepping out of my comfort zone – it was a first for me to feel how these transfers happen, and to be a part of one.”
To outsiders, Kane’s £86 million transfer to the German juggernauts may have appeared complex. Throughout the summer, reports that Bayern had seen separate £61m and £74m bids swatted away preceded rumours that an offer had finally been accepted, only for Tottenham to move the goalposts at the last minute – thus delaying Kane’s first flight out of Stansted. The man in the eye of the storm remained zen, however.
“Last season, all I focused on was Spurs and trying to help the club finish as high as possible in the table,” recalls the talisman, who plundered 30 Premier League goals as Tottenham limped to a disappointing eighth place last term. “Once the season finished, I spoke to Spurs and explained that I felt it was time to move on and push myself as far as possible. I then went away on holiday and that’s when talks started progressing. I was confident the clubs would eventually come to an agreement.”
In Germany, Kane’s record-breaking arrival was a big deal in every sense of the word. News outlets like SportBild, Kicker and Sky Deutschland ran 24/7 coverage of Bayern’s pursuit, with reporters and paparazzi based at both of Munich’s airports, plus Die Roten’s headquarters, around the clock.
“It was a huge media spectacle,” says Tobi Altschaffl, chief Bayern Munich correspondent at tabloid SportBild, who broke the details of the Kane move. “I can’t remember any other transfer in Bundesliga history receiving this much attention. It dominated headlines for weeks. In terms of sheer star power, I could only compare it with Kevin Keegan’s shock move to Hamburg in the 1970s. We felt great additional attention and spotlight on German football, especially from England.”
Bayern smashing their past transfer record – French defender Lucas Hernandez’s £68m switch from Atletico Madrid in 2019 – was always going toarrival, weeks after suggesting Spurs “would buckle” to Bayern’s financial might in the end – comments that reportedly rankled Levy.
