Bayern Munich have reached an agreement with Tottenham Hotspur to sign Harry Kane, sources in Germany indicate.
A proposal from the Bundesliga side, believed to be worth more than €100million (£86.4m, $110m), was accepted by their Premier League counterparts on Wednesday.
Kane must now decide whether or not he will make the move.
The 30-year-old wanted the situation resolved before Tottenham’s opening fixture of the season at Brentford on Sunday.
He is known to be enjoying life under new Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou and has been leaning towards staying.
But it is unclear how the striker will react to this development.
Kane is into the final 12 months of his contract and Tottenham want to tie him to fresh terms.
There has been no progress on that so far, which has led the club to consider selling their talisman in the current transfer window rather than running the risk of losing him as a free agent next summer.
Follow the summer transfer window with The Athletic…
Kane’s options dissected — leave now, leave next summer, sign new deal?
Analysis by Tottenham correspondent Tim Spiers
Bayern want Kane and Kane has appeared to want to move to Bayern. The talks wouldn’t have lasted this long if the striker hadn’t expressed a strong interest in joining the perennial German champions. It’s been believed throughout the summer that Kane doesn’t have an interest in entering negotiations to join any other side this window.
As far as personal terms go, The Athletic has previously reported that Bayern will offer Kane £25million all-in per season, the equivalent of £480,000 a week, which would more than double his current basic salary — so no issues there.
In Bayern’s favour is Kane’s contract situation. He can currently leave them as a free agent next summer, which right now feels like the worst-case scenario for the Premier League club — certainly from a financial perspective if not a footballing one.
If all this jostling comes to nothing, Tottenham can surely still expect a motivated and committed Kane to give his all for the club in the final year of his contract.
Kane scored four goals in a pre-season friendly against Shakhtar (Getty images)
He is said to be enjoying training under new head coach Ange Postecoglou, who will adopt a far more attacking and expansive style than predecessor Antonio Conte did over the previous couple of seasons.
Despite the tactics, Kane still managed 30 Premier League goals, his joint-best total in 11 seasons playing in the division, but he couldn’t lift a bedraggled team any higher than eighth in the final table. That means no European football for Spurs this season, which is likely to be a key factor in him having flirted with an exit from his boyhood club. There is hope that with new additions including his England colleague James Maddison and centre-back Micky van de Ven, Tottenham have reasons to be optimistic about the forthcoming campaign.
While Kane is only open to talking to Bayern in this window, he would have a long list of suitors in 2024. These could include Real Madrid, depending on the status of their pursuit of Kylian Mbappe, Paris Saint-Germain, who have sniffed around the Englishman this summer, other Premier League clubs and almost certainly interest Saudi Arabian ones, too.
Kane signing a new contract appears the least likely scenario but one that cannot be ruled out, given how much Spurs means to Kane.
He may have become their record goalscorer last season, surpassing the late, great Jimmy Greaves, but he still has one sizeable, notable achievement left to tick off – winning a trophy with them.
He would also dearly love to beat Alan Shearer’s Premier League record of 260 goals. Kane is currently on 213 in the competition and if he maintains his scoring rate of the past two years, he can expect to overtake Shearer towards the end of the 2024-25 season.
Analysis by Raphael Honigstein and Mark Carey
It’s easy to see why the serial German champions have made Kane their No 1 priority this summer. He is two players in one: a wonderful finisher in the box but just as adept at holding the ball up and playing in fast runners — which Bayern’s squad have in abundance — moving beyond him.
Kane will commonly drift into half-spaces in attacking phases to try to play a killer ball between the lines — commonly to unlock a defence or play the “pass before the assist” — rather than always being that striker prowling the zone between the goalposts.
Thomas Tuchel’s possession game would be greatly enhanced by a technical forward who can create depth by dragging defenders out of the back line. At the same time, Kane can also play like a more orthodox target man, holding up the ball for his team’s midfielders to join the attack.
He is quite simply a chief goalscorer and creator for club and country.
View from Germany — what if Kane rejects Bayern?
Analysis from German football correspondent Raphael Honigstein
Following a number of meetings with Kane and his advisors, Bayern have been convinced the forward would be set on moving to Munich if a fee were agreed with Spurs.
Any late change of heart would be a source of embarrassment to the new CEO Jan Dreesen, as well as honorary president Uli Hoeness and supervisory board member Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who have both taken a more active role since the demission of CEO Oliver Kahn and sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic in May.
If Kane opts against joining them, Bayern’s need for a centre-forward will see their attention turn to French international Randal Kolo Muani of Eintracht Frankfurt. The Bundesliga side have indicated that they value the 24-year-old at €100m.
(Photo: Getty Images)
