Johnson says Kane needs a trophy for greatness
Harry Kane must deliver titles for Bayern Munich or England if he is to be remembered as one of the world's greatest players, says former Three Lions defender Glen Johnson.
Kane enjoyed a brilliant debut campaign with Bayern in 2023-2024, but it finished third in the Bundesliga and suffered a heartbreaking Champions League semi-final exit at the hands of eventual champion Real Madrid.
The former Tottenham striker also failed to win his first trophy at Euro 2024, where England finished as runner-up to Spain, but silverware looks unlikely to elude him this season.
Bayern is six points clear at the Bundesliga summit with eight games remaining, while it meets Inter in a heavyweight Champions League quarter-final tie next month.
No player in Europe's top five leagues can match Kane's 76 goals in all competitions since the start of 2023-2024, but Johnson knows he needs to back up his individual achievements with team success.
"All the best players win stuff. That would be the only thing," Johnson said. "If he goes through his career being as good as he is, scoring as well as he can, playing as many games as he does, it would be a shame if he doesn't win anything.
"Because then it's difficult to put him in the ranks of the guys that have been winning leagues and Champions Leagues.
"It's hard to put him in that category if he hasn't done that, but personally, I want him to do it. He's a great lad."
Kane also has 21 assists in all competitions for Bayern. With 97 goal involvements in just 82 appearances, he could become the fastest player on record (since 2008-2009) to reach 100 for the Bavarian giants.
But Johnson was most complimentary of Kane's predatory instincts in front of goal.
Kane averages a goal every 34.7 touches. By comparison, Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe scores every 59.3 touches, Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski every 42.4 touches and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah every 67.3.
Kane has had 439 touches in the opposition box while at Bayern. He has scored 71 goals from inside the area (more than any other player in Europe's top five leagues since the start of 2023-2024), meaning he averages a goal every 6.2 touches inside the area.
Johnson, whose final England cap came less than a year before Kane made his Three Lions debut in March 2015, feels there are few strikers like the 31 year-old.
"He's a proper old-school striker, a goal machine and obviously, if you put good or world-class creative players around him then he's not going to stop scoring," he said.
"He's a guy that needs three chances to score two, so you always want the ball to fall to him at any goalscoring moment.
"Those old-fashioned number nines are a dying breed so absolutely, you've got to put him up there with the best goalscorers."
Kane and his Bayern Munich team-mates will look to take another step towards the Bundesliga crown when they host St Pauli.
