It was a night full of controversy when Manchester City and Spain’s Rodri beat out Real Madrid and Brazil’s Vinicius Jr. to the Ballon d’Or award at the awards ceremony in Paris for his achievements from the period of August 1st, 2023 to July 31st, 2024. The controversy was enough to have Real Madrid boycott the ceremony altogether even though the club won the Club of the Year award and Carlo Ancelotti won the Manager of the Year award.
Elsewhere, away from the controversy, Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane was the joint recipient of the Gerd Müller Trophy alongside Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe, whose goal tally came from his last season with Paris Saint-Germain. Across all competitions, Kane and Mbappe tallied a thoroughly impressive 52 goals last season. For Kane, it was a career season in front of goal even though Bayern finished the season without any silverware for the first time in over a decade, but the England skipper has shown he has been worth every penny Bayern spent on him last summer. It was rather unfortunate for him that his arrival coincided with the truly remarkable season that Xabi Alonso led his Bayer Leverkusen side to winning the domestic double.
Reflecting on the Ballon d’Or award winners, Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen, who’s future with the club is to be decided during the club’s supervisory board meeting next month, expressed his proudness for Kane to have won the award named after one of Bayern’s greatest ever players.
“We at FC Bayern are especially delighted that Harry Kane has been awarded the Gerd Müller Trophy. Our goal guarantee was awarded the trophy, which is named after an absolute Bayern legend and the greatest goal scorer in history – that makes us doubly proud. Harry has won the hearts of our fans from day one and is setting record after record. We are very happy to have him with us. Congratulations also go to Kylian Mbappé, who also scored 52 goals and also received the Gerd Müller Trophy,” he enthused (via @iMiaSanMia).
Photo by FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images
So far this season, Kane has already tallied 15 goals and 6 assists from 12 appearances across all competitions, so he could very well equal or better his tally of 52 goals from last season. Hopefully for Bayern’s sake, he can hit that same mark and win multiple pieces of silverware as an end result of those efforts.
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