Kane first Englishman to win Germany's player of the year award

NEW: Harry Kane voted Germany's footballer of the year for 2026, becoming the first Englishman ever to win the award after a 61-goal season for Bayern Munich.

Harry Kane is Germany's footballer of the year, the first Englishman ever to win it.

Sixty one goals last season. Say that number slowly. He's here in Bayern white, and the German sports journalists gave him 272 votes, well clear of his own teammate Michael Olise on 203. Bayern's sporting director Max Eberl said he's sometimes at a loss for words describing him, which for a football executive is basically poetry.

And the season already looks like a lap of honour. There he is celebrating in the red, the man who just collected Europe's Golden Shoe, won the league and cup double, and gets his award on Friday at the Allianz Arena before the Stuttgart opener.

The bigger prize is still out there. The Ballon d'Or lands in London in October, and Kane's among the favourites. Only Kevin Keegan has won it as an Englishman at a German club, and that was 1979. The queue behind him just got very short.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.