Kane hat-trick and a 122-goal record cap Bayern's title party with Cologne hammered 5-1
The Bundesliga trophy was always staying in Munich. The only question on the final day was how loudly Bayern wanted to underline it. The answer was a Harry Kane hat-trick, a 5-1 win over Cologne, and a 122-goal season the league has never seen before.
Kane needed 10 minutes to start the party at the Allianz Arena. Joshua Kimmich dropped a delivery onto his volley, and the champions were ahead. Three minutes later the England striker stepped up to a free kick on the edge of the Cologne box and curled it past the wall for 2-0. Two goals in three minutes and the trophy presentation was effectively booked.
Said El Mala briefly cut the deficit with a breakaway finish in the 18th minute, a reminder of why Chelsea and several of Europe's heavyweights are circling the 19-year-old winger. His goal only delayed the procession. Tom Bischof restored the two-goal cushion in the 22nd minute, finishing off a move started by Lennart Karl.
Kane wraps up a third straight Torjägerkanone
Bayern toyed with the visitors after the break. Kane's third arrived in the 69th minute, a long-range strike set up by Leon Goretzka that lifted him to 36 goals for the campaign. That tally settles the Torjägerkanone for the third year in a row. No player in Bundesliga history has won the top-scorer award in each of his first three seasons in the league.
Deniz Undav and Serhou Guirassy finished a distant second and third in the race on 19 and 17 goals respectively. Kane's 36-goal season sits behind only Robert Lewandowski and Gerd Müller in the all-time Bundesliga single-season list.
Vincent Kompany sent on Nicolas Jackson for what looked like the Senegal forward's final outing of his loan from Chelsea. The substitute swept home the fifth from Luis Díaz's pass in the 83rd minute, an emotional sign-off.
A 122-goal record 54 years in the breaking
The bigger number was the team's, not the striker's. With the goal against Cologne, Bayern reached 122 league goals for the campaign, smashing the previous Bundesliga high of 101 that the 1971/72 Bayern side had held for 54 years. Kompany's team averaged 3.59 goals per game across the season, the only side in Bundesliga history to clear three a game over a full campaign. They put five or more past an opponent on nine occasions in the league, another league record.
That tally also leaves Bayern as the highest-scoring single-season team in any of Europe's top-five leagues outside Torino's 1947-48 mark of 125, which came in a 40-game campaign rather than 34.
The trophy lift afterwards had the look of a finale, but the season is not finished. Kompany's side play Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal final next weekend, with a domestic double still on the line. With Kane sitting on 36 league goals and Bayern leaning on a record-breaking attack, anyone hoping for a tired closing chapter is reading the wrong story.
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