Start of something special Harry Kane on lifting a trophy - and what it took to get there

England's captain says the years of thinking Is it going to happen?’ are over as beers flow to toast Bayern’s Bundesliga title

- Rob Draper

It is late in Munich, approaching midnight, when Harry Kane appears. The nondescript, windowless TV interview room below the Allianz Arena could not be more of a contrast to the giddy, beer-soaked, firework-lit riot of celebration going on outside as Bayern Munich savour a 34th league title. There's also something different about Kane, and it's not just the gold medal.

The Kane visage that usually accompanies him at the end of a cup final, that little-boy-lost look of overwhelming disappointment, is gone. You cannot help but notice the broad grin, the relaxed body language and the tactile ease in the greeting, a man intoxicated by euphoria. "It's been a long night," he says, beaming. "And it's just the beginning."

Thomas Müller, who has been playing his last home game after 25 years at Bayern, is hosting a late-night soiree in one of Munich's more fashionable bars to which Kane is invited. First, though, he will be rejoining his wife, Katie, and three of his four children, who have just been celebrating with him on the pitch following Bayern's 2-0 win against Borussia Mönchengladbach, alongside Tim Sherwood, the coach who gave him his chance at Tottenham, and John McDermott, now the Football Association technical director but previously Tottenham's head of academy. Both have flown in for the evening. It is typical Kane wants to share this moment with fellow travellers on what has been a very long journey.