Harry Kane has become the first Englishman to be named Germany's footballer of the year, taking the 2026 award in Kicker magazine's annual members' poll. The Bayern Munich striker collected 272 of the votes cast by the 695-strong Association of German Sports Journalists, well clear of his club team-mate Michael Olise, who was runner-up on 203 votes, having also finished second in 2025 behind Florian Wirtz.
The honour rewards a season in which Kane scored 61 goals in all competitions for Bayern, who completed the Bundesliga and German Cup double and reached the Champions League semi-finals. Bayern's sporting director, Max Eberl, praised the striker, saying, "It's almost impossible to find the right superlatives to describe Harry Kane - sometimes I'm at a loss for words. He's already been named England's Footballer of the Year, and now he's also won it in Germany."
Bayern manager Vincent Kompany was named coach of the year in the same Kicker poll, while the club's women's captain, Giulia Gwinn, took the prize for best female player. Kane and Kompany will be honoured on Friday before Bayern's Bundesliga opener against Stuttgart at the Allianz Arena. The award follows Kane's collection of the 2026 Golden Shoe earlier this week, given to the top scorer across Europe's five biggest leagues last season.
Kane is now considered among the favourites for the 2026 Ballon d'Or, due to be presented in London in October. A win there would make him only the second Englishman to claim the award while at a German club, after Kevin Keegan did so in 1978 and 1979 with Hamburg. Bayern have already banked one trophy this season, beating Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in the German Super Cup on Saturday.