Harry Kane set to extend Bayern contract, shutting door on Man Utd

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s admiration for Harry Kane looks destined to go unfulfilled, with Bayern Munich moving towards tying down their star striker on a new long-term contract that would shut the door on Manchester United.

United’s interest in Kane has been no secret. On August 10, transfer insider Graeme Bailey reported that the club were among those monitoring the England captain’s situation, with the forward entering the final year of his Bayern deal. Ratcliffe, the club’s co-owner, is understood to be a huge admirer and open to exploring a move to bring the former Tottenham Hotspur talisman to Old Trafford.

That dream is fading fast.

Kane’s current contract in Munich expires at the end of the season, a situation that naturally alerted Europe’s elite and gave United hope that an opening might appear. Internally, United were willing to consider a deal should any opportunity arise, with Ratcliffe seeing Kane as a world-class solution to their long-term centre-forward problem.

But the pressure never really reached Bavaria. From the outset, Bailey reported that Kane’s preference was to stay at Bayern, and the German champions have been working with that assumption. Bayern are ready to offer the 33-year-old a new three-year contract, a deal that would keep him at the Allianz Arena well into the twilight of his prime and effectively remove any realistic chance of a Premier League return in the near future.

Now the German media say the situation is close to being resolved. An announcement on Kane’s future is expected next month, bringing an end to any lingering speculation.

Bild journalist Christian Falk, writing on his CFBayernInsider platform, lifted the curtain on the mood inside Bayern during the Sport Bild Awards, where Kane was named “football star of the year”.

Kane joined the ceremony via Zoom, while his father, Pat, represented him in person at the Fischauktionshalle in Hamburg. Falk spoke with Bayern president Herbert Hainer on the night and came away with a clear impression: nobody at the club is panicking.

“Everyone was saying, ‘relax’; everyone thinks a new contract will just be a matter of time,” Falk reported.

There are still details to iron out in the talks, but the confidence within Bayern is obvious.

The expectation is that a deal will be wrapped up quickly. Falk stated he is convinced a contract announcement will come “in the next month” and “absolutely this year, not next year”, with Kane set to sign an extension that runs beyond 2026.

If that happens, the consequences are simple. Kane will be “off the market for every other club for a long time,” as Falk put it, with a pointed apology to his “long-time admirers, Manchester United”.

For Ratcliffe and United, Kane was the dream marquee No 9. Bayern, it seems, are about to make sure that dream stays exactly that.