Harry Kane is still coming to terms with winning the Ballon d'Or, and his answer was to return to the routine he knows best. The Bayern Munich forward collected the award on Monday in his hometown of London, and by Wednesday he was back at the Allianz Arena for a second-round cup match against second-division side Magdeburg.
Kane did not play in the game, which Bayern won 6-1 with Michael Olise scoring twice. Supporters still got to see him, though. Less than an hour into the match, a group of fans in one corner of the stadium turned their attention to the substitutes warming up behind the opposing goal and chanted his name. Before kickoff, his teammates had formed a guard of honor for him.
The coaching staff had already hoped to rest Kane given Bayern's strength in the fixture, with Borussia Dortmund due this weekend and a Champions League trip to Atletico Madrid set for Tuesday. He trained on Tuesday and would have been available on Wednesday if needed. He is expected to prepare as normal for Saturday's match against Dortmund.
Kane is the first Englishman to win the award in 25 years and the first Bundesliga player to do so since Matthias Sammer in 1996. A ceremony that ran late ended at around 11 p.m. local time, and an afterparty reportedly continued well beyond that, although Kane insisted he "didn't party too hard." He described going "straight back to work."
The approach fits a player who has rarely chased individual honors. Kane has said his aim every four years is to win the World Cup with England. He left boyhood club Tottenham Hotspur for Bayern in 2023 in search of greater collective opportunities, even though he was just 47 goals short of Alan Shearer's Premier League scoring record at the age of 30.
"It's strange," Kane said. "It's not my normal thing to enjoy." He said the applause from teammates as he walked out to warm up left him a little embarrassed, but he acknowledged the scale of the achievement and the many messages he received. "I think I'm still processing everything, to be honest," he said. He added that a pre-game celebration planned for Saturday is important because it is "a big celebration as well."
At the London Palladium on Monday, Bayern teammates chanted his name as Ronaldo revealed he was the winner. Kane said he felt "a lot of nerves and just different emotions compared to a football match," and called the support from friends, family and fans "overwhelming almost."
Some practical questions remain unanswered. Kane has not decided where the trophy will sit, and he had not yet eaten the gold-flaked schnitzel a Bavarian restaurant delivered to his home, because a match-day routine came first. He said it is a nice tradition and joked, "let's just keep them coming."
Being back at the club brought comfort. "It feels like the Freiburg game was six weeks ago," he said of Sunday's match, calling the past 48 hours a whirlwind and saying it was nice "to feel at home again."
His wife and four children, aged nine to three, remain in London and are due back on Friday, so he has not seen them since the win. He expects the two boys to try to play with the heavy trophy. "I'll have to explain it's a little bit more precious," he said.
