Harry Kane's incredible season continues to reach new heights as he closes in on Robert Lewandowski's record for the most goals in a Bundesliga campaign.
Lewandowski broke Gerd Muller's 49-year record when finding the net 41 times in the 2020/21 season, with Kane now nine goals away from levelling the Poland star.
Kane remarkably failed to win any silverware in his first season in Bavaria, but has since made up for lost time with back-to-back Bundesliga titles and remains on course for the Treble -- priced at 23/10 -- with Bayern in the final of the DFB-Pokal and the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League having wrapped up the league last weekend.
Kane of course also has the chance of international silverware with the World Cup around the corner, and is surely eyeing more individual honours in the form of the Ballon d'Or.
The World Cup always has a big part to play in the awarding of football's biggest individual prize; Lionel Messi won the award in 2023 for his exploits at the 2022 World Cup, Luka Modric won the award in 2018 after reaching the final with Croatia as well as winning the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo won in 2014, and while he didn't win the World Cup, he did win the UEFA Champions League and the European Golden Shoe.
Lionel Messi narrowly pipped Barcelona team mates Xavi and Andres Iniesta to take the 2010 Ballon d'Or, Fabio Cannavaro won the Ballon d'Or in 2006 after captaining Italy to the World Cup, while Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane won the award in 2002 and 1998 for their World Cup wins -- both scoring braces in the final.
Hristo Stoichkov was never going to win the World Cup with Bulgaria in 1994, but did win La Liga, the World Cup Golden Boot and was the runner-up in the UEFA Champions League. Lothar Matthaus won in 1990 after captaining West Germany to the World Cup, Diego Maradona was ineligible to win the award in 1986, when non-European players couldn't win it, but Paolo Rossi won in 1982.
The likes of Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappe will be relying on outstanding summers to have a chance of Ballon d'Or success, with both players already eliminated from the UEFA Champions League, leaving Kane in pole position as 13/8 favourite for the Ballon d'Or.
If he's successful, Kane would be the fifth English player to win the Ballon d'Or. The award was won for the first time by Blackpool's Stanley Matthews in 1956, with Bobby Charlton second in 1966 on the back of England's World Cup win.
Kevin Keegan is the only Englishman to have won the award in back-to-back years, winning in 1978 and 1979 following his move from Liverpool to Hamburg, with Michael Owen the fourth and most recent having scored 24 goals en route to a cup treble of UEFA Cup, FA Cup and League Cup with Liverpool in 2001.
