LONDON: England captain Harry Kane says his interest in returning to the Premier League has cooled because he is “fully all in” on Bayern Munich.
The 32-year-old Kane joined Bayern from Tottenham in the summer of 2023 and is under contract there until the summer of 2027.
The striker said that when leaving Spurs, he expected “for sure” that would one day return to English soccer. He’s no longer certain about that.
“In terms of staying longer (at Bayern), I could definitely see that,” said Kane, who has reported for England duty ahead of a friendly with Wales on Thursday and a World Cup qualifier in Latvia on Oct. 14. “I spoke openly a couple of weeks ago that I have not had those conversations with Bayern yet, but if they were to arise I would be willing to talk and have an honest conversation.
“Obviously it depends on how the next year or so goes and what we achieve together. Right now, I would say we are in a fantastic moment and I am not thinking about anything else. In terms of the Premier League, I don’t know — if you had asked me when I first left to go to Bayern, I would have said for sure I would come back. Now I have been there a couple of years I would probably say that has gone down a little bit, but I wouldn’t say I would never go back.”
Kane has scored 11 goals in his first six games in the Bundesliga, with Bayern taking a maximum 18 points.
Bayern sporting director Christoph Freund recently said the team is “probably witnessing the best version of Harry Kane there has ever been.”
“What I have learnt in my career is that different opportunities and different timings happen and things fall in place,” Kane said. “Going back to my first point with Bayern right now I am fully all in with Bayern.”
Kane won his first major trophy at club level last season when Bayern won the league and he said that’s “given me more motivation to do more and be better.”
“I think I’ve shown that this year,” he said. “I was interested in how I would feel after winning a trophy. Obviously, there’s still a lot more I want to achieve in terms of other trophies and bigger trophies for sure.
“But I think it was always just, in my head, ‘What I was going to feel like after I did achieve winning my first one?’ But for sure, I pushed myself the other way, in terms of being even better, eating even cleaner, doing more gym. Just trying to get the most out of what I’ve got right now.”
Kane cools interest in Premier League return and is ‘fully all in’ on Bayern
https://arab.news/6ghgd
Kane cools interest in Premier League return and is ‘fully all in’ on Bayern
- The 32-year-old Kane joined Bayern from Tottenham in the summer of 2023 and is under contract there until the summer of 2027
- The striker said that when leaving Spurs he expected “for sure” that would one day return to English soccer
FIFA announces $60 World Cup tickets after pricing backlash
PARIS: World Cup organizers unveiled a new cut-price ticket category on Tuesday after a backlash by fans over pricing for the 2026 tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Football’s global governing body FIFA said in a statement that it had created a limited number of “Supporter Entry Tier” fixed at $60 for all 104 matches, including the final.
It said the plan was “designed to further support traveling fans following their national teams across the tournament.”
FIFA said that the $60 tickets would be reserved for fans of qualified teams and would make up 10 percent of each national federation’s allotment.
Fan group Football Supporters Europe , which last week called prices “extortionate” and “astronomical,” responded by saying the FIFA was offering too little.
“While we welcome FIFA’s seeming recognition of the damage its original plans were to cause, the revisions do not go far enough,” FSE said in a statement on Tuesday.
Last week, FSE said ticket prices were almost five times higher than in 2022 in Qatar, describing FIFA’s pricing for 2026 as a “monumental betrayal of the tradition of the World Cup.”
“If a supporter were to follow their team from the first match to the final it would cost them a minimum of $6,900,” it said at the time, adding that World Cup organizers had promised tickets priced from $21 in a bid document released in 2018.
‘Appeasement tactic’
On Tuesday, FSE said FIFA’s partial ticketing U-turn exposed flaws in how prices for next year’s tournament had been set.
“For the moment we are looking at the FIFA announcement as nothing more than an appeasement tactic due to the global negative backlash,” FSE said.
“This shows that FIFA’s ticketing policy is not set in stone, was decided in a rush, and without proper consultation — including with FIFA’s own member associations.
“Based on the allocations publicly available, this would mean that at best a few hundred fans per match and team would be lucky enough to take advantage of the 60 US dollar prices, while the vast majority would still have to pay extortionate prices, way higher than at any tournament before.”
The organization also criticized the failure to make provisions for supporters with disabilities or their companions.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer echoed FSE, stating that FIFA’s cheaper ticket category did not go far enough.
“I welcome FIFA’s announcement of some lower priced supporters tickets,” Starmer wrote on X.
“But as someone who used to save up for England tickets, I encourage FIFA to do more to make tickets more affordable so that the World Cup doesn’t lose touch with the genuine supporters who make the game so special.”
Announcing the $60 tickets on Tuesday, FIFA said that national federations “are requested to ensure that these tickets are specifically allocated to loyal fans who are closely connected to their national teams.”
FIFA also said that if fans bought tickets for games in the knockout rounds only to find their team eliminated at an earlier stage, they “will have the administrative fee waived when refunds are processed.”
It added that it was making the announcement “amid extraordinary global demand for tickets” with 20 million requests already submitted.
The draw for tickets of all prices in the first round of sales will take place on Tuesday, January 13.
