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Tottenham striker Harry Kane has agreed to join Bayern Munich in a deal that could be worth up to €120 million ($131m), sources told ESPN.
Kane, 30, will travel to Germany to undergo a medical ahead of signing a four-year contract.
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There was last-minute drama Friday morning as Kane’s departure from London was delayed as Spurs sought to refine aspects of the deal.
Sources close to Tottenham moved to deny any complications with the move and insisted he had permission to fly to Germany, but it is understood Kane was waiting at a family home before being cleared to leave the United Kingdom on Friday afternoon.
ESPN revealed earlier this month that Bayern were prepared to pay €100m plus up to €20m in add-ons and a transfer has now been agreed at that price after Bayern revised the structure of the terms.
New coach Ange Postecoglou revealed that the club has planned for Kane’s departure all summer, having got a sense from their first conversation after starting work on July 1 that he would leave the club.
“It is fair to say I don’t have a blow-by-blow account of the whole thing but my understanding is it has progressed to the point where it looks like it is going to happen,” he said.
“That’s all the information I have at the moment. From our perspective, that gives us some clarity that unless something unforeseen happens, we move forward without Harry.
“I had a conversation with Harry the first day I arrived. He was up front and honest. I was the same. You kind of got an indication that he’d kind of made up his mind that if the clubs agreed, he would go, particularly if it was before the first game.
“That was my preference as well. There was nothing along the way that made me feel like there was anything other than this outcome.
“We’ve been planning for this, it is fair to say, for a while. It doesn’t take too much investigative work to realise that this was going to happen. We’ve been planning for it to happen anyway.
“So a lot of our business up until now was with that in mind. This doesn’t change things dramatically from my perspective anyway in terms of what we are trying to build.”
Kane’s decision to depart brings to an end a long-running saga that ultimately concludes his 19-year association with Spurs.
Bayern had three offers rejected and set a deadline of last Friday to complete an agreement, only to table a fourth offer that Tottenham reluctantly accepted, leaving Kane to decide his future.
Sources told ESPN that the England captain genuinely considered staying to see out the final year of his contract after Postecoglou made a positive impression at the club, but Kane’s desire to win silverware was the deciding factor.
He did not want the uncertainty to drag into the season and was prepared to stay if the two clubs failed to reach an agreement, but after Spurs accepted Bayern’s latest offer, Kane chose to agree to a move.
Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel had been keen on bringing Kane to Chelsea during his time at Stamford Bridge and has landed his top target to lead his team’s attack as they target a 12th consecutive Bundesliga title.
Speaking on Friday, Tuchel said: “We are working with full pressure on this deal. We can confirm this but as we speak there is no agreement yet and if there is no agreement yet then the coach cannot talk about someone who is not their player.
“I understand there are a lot of ifs and whens. All options are open. The first is to have him as a player and at the moment he is not yet that.
“This is a big deal. We are trying to take the England captain away from the Premier League.”
Tuchel could not confirm whether Kane’s move would be completed in time to play in Saturday’s German Super Cup clash against RB Leipzig.
Spurs were prepared to double Kane’s £200,000-a-week salary but sources told ESPN he made it clear he had no intention of signing a new deal this summer, which left the club deciding whether to risk losing him for nothing next summer or take the last chance to accept a significant fee for a player with 12 months left on his existing deal.
Bayern have offered him a contract of similar value, thought to be worth around £400,000-a-week.
Kane will remain on 213 Premier League goals, 48 short of Alan Shearer’s all-time record.
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