249 goals – 0 trophies 

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Last summer, 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 has followed Kane to Germany, as he now stares down the barrel of the club’s first trophy-less season in 13 years. 

Kane, unsurprisingly, has been prolific in a Bayern shirt this campaign. No player in Europe comes tops the 36 goals in 32 league games that has the Englishmen currently leading the race for the European Golden shoe. However, as a team Bayern have struggled. After the mightily impressive Bayer Leverkusen romped to the Bundesliga title, two late Joselu goals also saw Bayern crash out of the Champions League to Real Madrid in the semi-finals. Another trophy-less season for Kane. It would be astonishing if a player as good as Kane was to go through his entire career without ever lifting a major trophy. Do any other players get near the striker when it comes to scoring goals but not achieving team silverware? Here at Transfermarkt, we take a look at the footballers with the most goals since 2000 in Europe’s top five leagues to have never won a major trophy.

Most goals in Europe’s top 5 leagues since 2000 without a major trophy

To no great avail, Kane is way out in front. His ability, goalscoring and general demeanour mean it defies logic that he has never been in a team that have won a major trophy. Kane has now scored a mouthwatering 249 goals in the top five leagues, with not a single one leading to unified team glory. That’s 40 more goals than the next player on the list. Perhaps his loyalty to Tottenham, which will ultimately lead to him becoming a club legend there, is one of the factors that has held him back. A move to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City came close in 2021, but failed to materialise, with the Sky Blues eventually turning their attention to Erling Haaland instead. Kane still does have a shot at the Euro 2024 trophy with England this summer.

In second place is Italian cult hero Antonio Di Natale. The former striker scored 209 goals, but with the majority coming for Udinese, with whom he represented for 12 years, meaning he was never able to win a major trophy. In third with 198 goals is French striker Wissam Ben Yedder, who has banged goals in both La Liga and Ligue 1, but has never been part of a victorious team at neither Toulouse, Sevilla, or Monaco. In fourth place is another player with a huge legacy at Spurs in Heung-Min Son. The South Korean international signed for Tottenham from Leverkusen back in 2015, and has been one of the Premier League’s best players. The forward has scored 161 in the top five leagues without any major silverware. At 31 years of age time is also running out for Son. Completing the top five is Athletic Club legend Aritz Aduriz, who was a proven goalscorer at Athletic Club, Mallorca and Valencia, although trophies evaded him. 

Stefan Kießling takes sixth place with 144 goals scored, with the majority coming for Leverkusen, who had never won a Bundesliga title before this season under Xabi Alonso. Seventh goes to former Bosnian forward Vedad Ibisevic, who scored 127 times without winning a trophy. He’s followed by Domenico Berardi, with 122 goals. Then it’s Frenchmen Anthony Modeste and Dimitri Payet in ninth and tenth respectively.