Prime of my career’ – Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane plans ‘another few years’ at the top and targets 2026 World Cup glory with England

However, last season, Bayern won the league comfortably, and Kane scored 41 goals in 51 appearances.

This campaign, Bayern are again top of the table – they’re currently nine points clear – and Kane is on course to outstrip his previous haul, having scored 29 goals in 24 games.

Reports have consistently claimed that Kane has a £56 million release clause which can be activated in the summer under certain conditions, but there are few indications that the player or the club are looking for him to move on any time soon.

Speaking to TNT Sports, Kane appeared confident that he would be able to perform at the top of his game for some time yet.

He said: “Good question. I am 32 now, and sometimes you get to an age where people just assume you are going to start slowing down and assume it’s coming to an end.

“But I feel like I’m in the prime of my career and I just touched on the numbers I’m putting up and physically how I feel. Even if I look at the running data from this season, I am running as much as I have ever run before, so it’s hard to say.”

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The England skipper suggested that he might have three more years at the highest level, adding: “I feel like I could play for many more years and I feel like I am right in the prime of what I want to do, and hopefully that lasts for another few years.

“As we know in football, things can change pretty quickly, so we will see. Right now, I feel really good.”

Kane has flourished, as have the rest of his colleagues, with former Burnley manager Vincent Kompany as manager.

He suggested that the erstwhile Manchester City defender has been integral to the improvement of the team as they have dominated German football, and emerged once more as serious contenders for the Champions League.

He explained: “I think it’s been a building block from when the manager started. Because we played such good football last year, and we won the league convincingly in the end, people forgot that it was still Kompany’s first season and that there was still a lot for us to learn and get better at.

“We took that a little bit into the Club World Cup and coming into this season, everyone just understood their roles a little bit more and everyone was hungrier and the way we pressed was better.

“Everything just improved, and the Super Cup was a big game at the start of the season because we had a short pre-season and to be able to win that set us up well. We then got a big win against Leipzig in the first game of the season and this gave us a bit of momentum where we almost felt unstoppable.

“We wanted to just continue that and ride the wave to see where it takes us. That winning momentum is really important, and we held onto that for a long period until the Arsenal game.

“We have to try to get that feeling back now, but overall, the team has understood the coach’s ideas a little bit more, and you are seeing that as the months go by.”

Kane captains the England side, and former Bayern manager Thomas Tuchel is currently in charge of the Three Lions as he targets World Cup glory in North America next summer.

The Bayern forward suggested that having had several near misses under previous England manager Gareth Southgate, the only acceptable outcome in the World Cup would be for the country to win it for a second time in its history.

“I think we are at that stage now where only a win is going to satisfy us and the country,” Kane claimed.

“We had that a little bit in the last Euros because we got to the final and there was still a lot of negative noise around us.

“We knew that unless we won it, that noise was going to continue, and it did, and that’s part of it. We have been building on the success from 2018 onwards from the semi-final of the World Cup to the final, quarter-final, and then final.

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“We have been knocking on the door, and we have consistently been one of the best teams in the world, so there is an expectation going into this tournament.

“We are fourth in the world rankings and people see us as one of the favourites, so we have to acknowledge that and take that into the tournament and be able to handle that pressure.”

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