The Englishmen who have claimed Bundesliga gold

Harry Kane
Bundesliga appearances: 61 (60 goals)
Club: Bayern Munich (2023-present)
Honours: Bundesliga (2024/25) 

After spending years widely considered to be the world's best striker never to have won a title, Kane finally joined the ranks of the rewarded when Bayern stitched up the 2024/25 Bundesliga crown. 

Kane spent many years going close with boyhood club Tottenham, which he joined as an 11-year-old, notably earning three Golden Boots in the English Premier League (2015/16, 2016/17, 2020/21) on top of a host of individual awards and all-star team inclusions. He was part of Mauricio Pochettino's valiant Tottenham side that fell 2-0 to Liverpool in the 2019 UEFA Champions League final and, in 2022/23, he became the London club's all-time top scorer with 280 goals across all competitions.

This packed resume - which also included the Golden Boot from the 2018 FIFA World Cup - was more than enough to to draw the interest of Bayern, who needed a replacement for Robert Lewandowski just as Kane was coming into the final season of his contract at White Hart Lane. 

What followed was simply incredible, with Kane hitting the ground running and smashing all sorts of scoring records in a 36-goal debut Bundesliga campaign. However, with Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen side going undefeated and pipping Bayern to the title, Kane's season set a new standard for how good you can be without winning the league.

But the England captain remained undaunted and has thrown himself into his work once again in the 2024/25 campaign, his league-high 24 goals (so far) and impressive nine assists helping the Bavarian giants to their 33rd Bundesliga title - and the very first for a more-than-deserving Kane.  

Eric Dier
Bundesliga appearances: 34 (two goals)
Club: Bayern Munich (January 2024-present)
Honours: Bundesliga (2024/25)

Like compatriot, friend, former Tottenham teammate and current Bayern and England teammate Kane, Dier has had to wait a long time for the first piece of silverware in his career.

After coming up through the youth academy at Sporting Lisbon, the bilingual defender spent the better part of a decade with Tottenham, experiencing many of the same ups and downs as Kane before joining his old pal on loan at the Allianz Arena in the winter of 2024.  

As mentioned above, that initial season didn't put an end to Dier's trophy drought, but it did see him make enough appearances to trigger the automatic purchase clause in his contract. So far in the 2024/25 campaign, Dier has made 19 appearances - and scored his first two Bundesliga goals - on the way to his first-ever piece of silverware - the Bundesliga Meisterschale. 

It seems that Dier will end his time in Germany's top flight on a high, Bayern having announced that the 31-year-old has not signed a contract extension and will leave the club in the summer. 

Omar Richards
Bundesliga appearances: 12
Club: Bayern Munich (2021/22)
Honours: Bundesliga (2021/22), Supercup (2021)

Richards is perhaps the most under-the-radar of our English Bundesliga champions, having made just 12 appearances for the club under Julian Nagelsmann in season 2021/22. 

A former England U21 international, Richards joined Bayern on a free transfer after making his name at boyhood club Reading. Brought in as cover at left-back following the departure of David Alaba for Real Madrid, Richards also pitched in on the left side of midfield as the Bavarians racked up a +60 goal difference on the way to an eight-point Bundesliga title win.

Although he had signed a four-year deal with Bayern, Richards spent just the one season in Bavaria, the search for more game time taking him to Nottingham Forest in 2022.

Owen Hargreaves
Bundesliga appearances: 145 (five goals)
Club: Bayern Munich (1997 – 2007)
Honours: Bundesliga (2000/01, 2002/03, 2004/05, 2005/06), DFB Cup (2002/03, 2004/05, 2005/06), League Cup (2000/01), UEFA Champions League (2000/01), Intercontinental Cup (2000/01)

International man of intrigue Hargreaves - a Canadian-born Wales youth international and England senior international who cut his teeth in Germany's top flight - enjoyed the most Bundesliga success of the five gentlemen on this list.

After leaving Canada to sign for Bayern's youth set-up as a 16-year-old, the defensive midfielder worked his way into the senior squad and made his Bundesliga debut under Ottmar Hitzfeld at the beginning of the 2000/01 season.  

His intelligent distribution, hard tackling and astute reading of the game saw him help the club not only to a third-straight Bundesliga title in his first senior season, but to the UEFA Champions League title and three more league trophies - as well as a host of cup titles - over the following six seasons.

A leg break saw him sidelined for most of the 2006/07 campaign, and although he returned to action towards the end of the season, that proved the end of his prolific spell in Bavaria as he made the switch to Manchester United that summer.

Kevin Keegan
Bundesliga appearances: 90 (32 goals)
Club: Hamburg (1977 – 1980)
Honours: Bundesliga (1978/79), Ballon d’Or (1978, 1979)

The only man on our list to lifted Bundesliga gold with a club other than Bayern, Keegan was unusual in many ways. First of all, given how few English players have chosen to ply their trade overseas - especially back in the 70s - his choice to sign for Hamburg was eye-catching. But to do so after enjoying incredible success with a legendary Liverpool side with whom he had just won back-to-back First Division titles - as well as the European Cup, an FA Cup and two UEFA Cups - showed that he was a man looking for a challenge.

And what a challenge it was: Hamburg hadn't finished above sixth in the previous two decades and took a big swing by forking out a British and German record transfer fee - as well as an exorbitant salary - for the Englishman. Thankfully, it wasn't just Keegan's brand-new perm that turned heads in Germany. The forward racked up 40 goals in 113 appearances across all competitions and helped the side from northern Germany to win its fourth German title and its first in the Bundesliga era.

However, it took some time for the gamble to pay off, with Keegan struggling adapt to the cultural and linguistic differences of life in Germany - not to mention the inevitable dressing-room ructions following the arrival of a big star for big money. The low point for Keegan came when he was handed an eight-match suspension for punching a player who had been goading him, but he managed 12 goals to help Hamburg to a 10th-placed finish in the 1977/78 season.

These goals helped him earn the first of successive Ballons d'Or - while also deepening his ties in the dressing room. Keegan knew he had turned the corner when teammate Peter Hidien also got a perm, and under new coach Branko Zebec, Hamburg reversed their fortunes and claimed their first German title in 19 years. 

The following season, they produced a stunning semi-final comeback against Real Madrid to book a spot in the European Cup final, but a 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest - accompanied by Bayern pipping them to the Bundesliga title by two points - saw them finish an otherwise excellent season without silverware. The following summer, Keegan drew a line under his successful spell in Germany and moved back to England, signing for Southampton.