England coach Gareth Southgate backs Harry Kane for a move to Bayern Munich

Speaking to Talksport, England coach Gareth Southgate was asked about Harry Kane and his rumored move to Bayern Munich (which seems to be getting less and less likely by the hour). Southgate, who has coached Kane since 2016, was broadly supportive of the move, saying that players can benefit from going abroad.

He took the example of Jude Bellingham, a former Bundesliga player, as someone who has risen through the ranks thanks to their experiences abroad. Bellingham moved from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid earlier this summer.

Here’s Southgate’s take on the Kane debate:

Actually, it doesn’t concern me because wherever he is he’s an outstanding player and he’ll have a good season and he’ll score a load of goals.

So I think it’s more of a dilemma for the player, the club, what do they do financially?

He’s at a certain point of his contract where can you afford not to take the money or can you afford to lose the player? That’s the difficult thing for the people running the football club and there are a few situations like that always in the transfer window, aren’t there?

You want the best players playing in the league if you possibly can, if you’re a fan of the Premier League. I mean, Jude [Bellingham] has gone to Real Madrid. Yeah, we’re not short of outstanding players and for me, English players playing abroad is a good experience for them.

You know what Jude is going to experience? The pressure of playing at a club like Real Madrid where you have to win every week and you’re playing with those outstanding players. You’re training with them every day. You’re having to mature by living abroad as he has at Dortmund. I don’t see a downside in that.

So for years, we’ve never had players going abroad. We’ve got a few more going abroad now to Italy, to Germany, now to Spain. So I think that’s good for their individual development and they’ve got their own careers and so England is always a consequence of what they do with their clubs in the end.

It’s not for me to dictate where they go, where they play. We’ll assess where they are. We won’t rule people out. We’ve never ruled anybody out because of the league they play in. We rule them out on the comparison with the other players in their positions.

It’s a pretty mature take from the England coach, especially given how pundits across the channel like to think anything aside from the Premier League is beneath their contempt. Now, it remains to be seen whether Kane is actually going to follow through and make his move to Bayern Munich. Recent updates indicate that the deal is near collapse.

Frustrated by the recent turn of events? Should Bayern just give up on the Kane transfer? We discussed that very thing in the latest episode of our podcast! Listen to it below or on Spotify.

As always, we appreciate all the support.