Kane, Bellingham and the roads to European stardom
image: ReutersONE-THIRD of the way through the European football season, something unusual is happening in the German and Spanish leagues. The top scorers in both are Englishmen. Harry Kane has scored 17 goals in his first 11 matches for Bayern Munich. Jude Bellingham—a midfielder, no less—has knocked in ten in his first 11 games for Real Madrid.The pair may be wowing new supporters at the same time, and with similarly jaw-dropping feats. (Mr Bellingham scored the two goals that beat Real’s arch-rivals, Barcelona; Mr Kane scored from his own half against Darmstadt.) But the routes they have taken to their exalted positions in European football are quite different. Mr Bellingham’s shows how English footballers have changed. A group that used to be insular has, over the past decade, become more integrated with the rest of Europe. Mr Kane’s feels like a throwback to a previous era.Mr Kane is enjoying himself in Germany after deciding that he had gone as far as he could in England. He had
ONE-THIRD of the way through the European football season, something unusual is happening in the German and Spanish leagues. The top scorers in both are Englishmen. Harry Kane has scored 17 goals in his first 11 matches for Bayern Munich. Jude Bellingham—a midfielder, no less—has knocked in ten in his first 11 games for Real Madrid.
The pair may be wowing new supporters at the same time, and with similarly jaw-dropping feats. (Mr Bellingham scored the two goals that beat Real’s arch-rivals, Barcelona; Mr Kane scored from his own half against Darmstadt.) But the routes they have taken to their exalted positions in European football are quite different. Mr Bellingham’s shows how English footballers have changed. A group that used to be insular has, over the past decade, become more integrated with the rest of Europe. Mr Kane’s feels like a throwback to a previous era.
Mr Kane is enjoying himself in Germany after deciding that he had gone as far as he could in England. He had spent all his career at Tottenham, though across three formative years he was loaned to teams further down the footballing pyramid to learn his craft. He is the club’s—and indeed his country’s—record goalscorer. But having reached a Champions League final in 2019, Tottenham regressed. An ambitious character, nearing the end of his career and keen for trophies, Mr Kane had a decision to make.
Top English strikers of previous generations were faced with similar headscratchers. Gary Lineker left Everton for Barcelona in 1986 and flourished. A decade later, Alan Shearer made his big move from Blackburn Rovers to Newcastle United, his hometown club. Mr Kane’s domestic options were more limited. After Tottenham refused to sell him to a Premier League rival, Manchester City, in 2021, he probably felt he had little choice but to emulate Mr Lineker and move abroad, for a fee of around €100m ($108m).
So far, the transfer has been a hit. Bayern look good to win what would be their 12th consecutive Bundesliga title. They are currently second favourites for the Champions League. With a decent performance for England at the European Championships, Mr Kane could win the Ballon d’Or, the annual award for the best player in the world.
His greatest competition could come from Mr Bellingham. Almost exactly a decade younger, the midfielder was on the books of Birmingham City as a youngster. His imposing physique and reading of the game made him a first-team regular aged just 16. Several of Europe’s top clubs were eager to advance his footballing education; that he chose to leave England for Borussia Dortmund was revealing. Mr Bellingham, his family and advisers were impressed by the German club’s reputation for signing precocious youngsters and developing them into high-quality players. At 17, Mr Bellingham followed in the footsteps of Jadon Sancho, a Londoner who left Manchester City’s academy for Dortmund and spent four successful years in the Ruhr valley. Mr Bellingham was an even bigger hit, winning the award for the Bundesliga’s best player in the 2022-23 season. Weeks later, he headed to Madrid.
In the period between Mr Kane’s establishing himself at Tottenham and Mr Bellingham’s moving to Germany, the English Premier League consolidated its position as the pre-eminent league in world football. This has had several, overlapping effects. High wages enabled by soaring broadcasting revenues have attracted ever more of the world’s best players. This has made the league more cosmopolitan, but restricted the number of opportunities for graduates of English clubs’ academies. Money has also filtered down to the academies themselves and driven up standards. The net effect is that these football nurseries produce some exceptional players but it has become harder than ever for them to build a career in the Premier League.
So more young players are looking abroad to establish themselves. In recent years, English academy graduates at Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham, for example, have moved to Bayern Munich, Lille (in France) and Standard Liege (in Belgium). The most recent England under-21 squad included players at Dortmund, Reims (in France) and Juventus (in Italy). The trend is still in its infancy. But English national teams are likely to become increasingly cosmopolitan in the coming years, with more Bellinghams learning their trade overseas and fewer Kanes moving abroad late in their careers.■
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