Is Schick the Bundesliga's form striker?

Kane's scored 21 goals ahead of Matchday 27, adding to the league-leading 36 he hit last season. The Bayern No.9 has featured in 24 games, giving him a minutes-per-goal ratio of 88' whilst putting him in pole position to claim a second successive Torjägerkanone.

Schick sits second in the current charts, with 17 goals from 23 appearances at a clip of one every 68 minutes - the best strike rate in the division. Interestingly, he didn't score his first goal of the league campaign until Matchday 10, by which point Kane had struck 11 times. In 15 outings since, Leverkusen's Czech forward has rattled off 16 goals to Kane's 11.

Watch: Patrik Schick - the making of Leverkusen's super striker

Digging further still, Schick has started just 13 games this season, playing 1,162 minutes in total. Kane, by comparison, has started all but two of the 24 games he’s been available for, clocking up 1,856 minutes. 

Kane’s tally also features nine Bundesliga penalties – a perfect record, no less - whereas Schick is yet to take one for Leverkusen this season. In terms of non-penalty goals, Schick is out in front, with 17 goals to Kane’s 12.

In a recent interview with bundesliga.com, Schick insisted he could have had even more goals this term, had injuries not played their part.

“It’s a nice number, for sure, but we know how the start of the season was,” he said. “For me, it was not that good, but I didn’t give up. I still wanted to be ready when my chance came, and we don’t know what might have happened if I played regularly from the start of the season. You have to be ready because if you are not, we probably wouldn’t be sitting here and talking about it.”

Schick’s highest Bundesliga tally to date is the 24 strikes he managed in 27 appearances across the 2021/22 season. Even then, he was scoring a goal roughly every 87 minutes – a far slower rate than he’s managed in the current campaign. He pitched in with seven as Leverkusen stunned the competition to steal Bayern’s crown in 2023/24 – an injury-blighted record and a long way short of his best. He’s making up for that in 2024/25, though. 

Three goals in Schick's last five have helped Leverkusen close the gap on leaders Bayern - for whom Kane has failed to score in the same period - to six points.  For reference, Borussia Dortmund's Serhou Guirassy (14 goals for the season) has five goals in that time, albeit with four of those falling in one game. Mainz's Jonathan Burkardt is the next best form-wise, with three goals between Matchdays 22-26, which is one more than Borussia Mönchengladbach forward Tim Kleindienst, who also has 15 goals so far this term.

If Schick continues to fire and Kane falter with eight rounds of fixtures remaining, Leverkusen have a very real chance of reeling in the recording champions and successfully defending their crown. The top scorer's prize is also firmly on the increasingly potent Bayer No.14's radar.