360 club career goals later
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In the summer of 2023, after 14 years as a player at Tottenham, Harry Kane finally left north London in pursuit of winning his first major trophy to accompany his many individual accolades. Kane won the Premier League golden boot three times while at Spurs. If you want guaranteed trophies, there’s not many better teams to sign for than German giants Bayern Munich. In a €95m deal, Kane joined the Bavarian side who had won the last 11 Bundesliga titles back-to-back. Add to that the Champions League in 2020 and it was clear that one of the world’s best strikers was joining serial winners. More incoming trophies seemed a foregone conclusion. But misfortune followed Kane to Germany, as he stared down the barrel of the club’s first trophy-less season in 13 years. Fast-forward 12 months and the curse is finally broken.
Having scored 360 club career goals whilst playing for top-five league clubs, Kane has finally added a major trophy to his cabinet, after Bayern sealed the Bundesliga title with their 3-2 comeback win against RB Leipzig. The Bavarian lager will be tasting sweeter than ever for the England captain. No player this century was anywhere near his tally of 360 goals without a major trophy, but which star now holds that unwanted accolade? At Transfermarkt, we have listed the top 20 players with the most goals for top-five league clubs since 2000, without ever winning a major trophy. A major trophy has been counted as any top-five league title, any top-five league main domestic cup, the EFL Cup in England, the Champions League, the Europa League, The Europa Conference League, the World Cup and the European Championships.
Most goals in Europe’s top-5 leagues since 2000 without a major trophy
Following Kane leaving this unwanted group, the new leader is French striker Wissam Ben Yedder. The forward has scored as many as 259 goals for Monaco, Sevilla and Toulouse but has never won a major trophy with any of those clubs. In second is Italian cult hero Antonio Di Natale, who scored 247 career goals for Udinese and Empoli, but was never able to get over the line and win a trophy. In third spot and rapidly rising up the list is Kane’s former teammate Heung-min Son. The South Korean has scored 222 goals for Tottenham, Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburg but never tastes ultimate glory. The closest he came was the 2019 Champions League final, in which Spurs lost 2-0 to Liverpool.
In fourth place is former Spanish striker Aritz Aduriz, who scored 219 goals for various LaLiga clubs with no major trophies to his name. Fifth goes to former Bayer Leverkusen striker Stefan Kießling, who scored 177 goals with an empty trophy cabinet. In sixth is Vedad Ibisevic with 156 goals. He is followed in seventh by Andrej Kramaric with 147 goals. Eighth goes to former Germany striker Kevin Kuranyi with 144 goals. In ninth place is Marseille and West Ham legend Dimitri Payet with 142 goals, whilst former French striker Anthony Modeste completes the top 10 with 135 goals.
