I’m a former team-mate of Harry Kane but left Premier League a decade ago, now I’m set to become his Bundesliga rival
HARRY KANE is set to be reunited with an old Tottenham team-mate in the Bundesliga next season.
Kane has been starring in Germany since his £104million transfer to Bayern Munich from Spurs last summer.
Despite Bayern failing to win the German top flight for the first time in 12 years, Kane has still managed an impressive 43 goals and 11 assists in 43 games, including 35 in 31 league games.
Kane, 30, still has the chance to land his first-ever career trophy with the Champions League this season, however, he will be hoping to dethrone Xabi Alonso‘s Bayer Leverkusen domestically next term.
But on that journey, the England captain looks set to face a familiar foe in Lewis Holtby, who played for Tottenham between 2013 and 2015 after signing from Schalke.
Holtby, 33, shared the pitch with Kane seven times – remarkably with a 100 per cent win rate and just two goals conceded – in north London before he departed to join Hamburg in 2015.
After four years Holtby did briefly return to England to star for Blackburn before he sealed a free transfer in 2021 to join current club Holstein Kiel.
And following an impressive season in the 2. Bundesliga, Kiel now look set to secure promotion to the German top flight for the first time in their history.
Holtby has played a key part of the north German sides efforts to get promoted, appearing in 28 games with four goals and ten assists.
Holtby and co sit in the second automatic promotion spot in the table with just three games of the season remaining and a five-point gap over Fortuna Dusseldorf, who are in the promotion play-off spot.
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They can secure promotion in their next game if they beat relegation threatened SV Wehen Wiesbaden and Fortuna Dusseldorf fail to beat FC Nurnberg.
However, providing Dusseldorf win it will set-up a promotion shootout between the two in the penultimate game of the season.
Should Kiel fall to third in the table they will face a play-off match against the third-bottom side in the Bundesliga – a position currently occupied by Mainz.
There is also the possibility that Holtby is promoted as a 2. Bundesliga champion with Kiel, but they will have to overcome a two-point gap to St. Pauli to achieve that.
On the team, the three-time capped Germany star said: “It’s really a lot of fun to be with this young and hungry team right now.
“We have a great spirit and still a lot of potential for improvement.
“I have a very very good relationship with everyone at the club, because people here are simply honest, northern and direct.”
This one will have stung Kane the most... what's the German for schadenfreude?, says Dave Kidd
By Dave Kidd
OF all the trophies Harry Kane has missed out on, the Bundesliga will have stung the most.
This was supposed to have been a dead cert. This was nailed-on.
Bayern Munich had won 11 successive Bundesliga titles, so when the England captain signed for the great Bavarian powerhouse last summer, we all said: “Well, at least he’ll finally win something.”
Yet on Sunday evening, there were Bayer Leverkusen — known in Germany as ‘Neverkusen’ because they hadn’t previously won the league thanks to several late implosions — cavorting around, 16 points clear, unbeaten in all competitions and confirmed as champions with five games to spare.
And so the greatest trophy curse in footballing history continues.
And this one really is freakish because Leverkusen’s story is almost as extraordinary as Leicester City’s miracle title in 2015-16 — the season when Kane won his first Premier League Golden Boot and Tottenham ended up ‘third in a two-horse race’ behind Arsenal.
Kane is always the runner-up, always the nearly man, always the fall guy, too often a figure of fun for those taking pleasure in the misfortune of others.
Does anyone know the German word for schadenfreude…?
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