HARRY KANE should spend some of his £415,000-a-week Bayern Munich salary on a £5.99 pocket German-English dictionary.
That is the advice from Alan McInally, who was the first Brit to sign for the German giants when they paid a club-record £1.2million to land him in the summer of 1989.
GettyHarry Kane has been urged to splash out on a German-English dictionary[/caption]
AlamyAlan McInally knows a thing or two about scoring goals for Bayern Munich[/caption]
Kane is having two German lessons a week as he settles into his new life at Bayern after his £104m transfer switch from Tottenham this month.
But McInally warns that should just be the start of his language studies.
The former Celtic and Aston Villa striker told SunSport: “I still have my original German-English dictionary.
“I implore Harry to get one and every time he hears a word he thinks is important, look it up and remember it.
“He should immerse himself in the German language.
“When he’s in the car, leave the radio tuned to German stations. Watch films in German, listen to the news in German.
“There are times when it’s easy to switch off if the coach is giving a long teamtalk in German — even though there are translators.
“You find yourself staring at a picture on the wall or something on the ceiling until someone speaks in English and you switch on again.
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“Don’t allow yourself to daydream and when everyone is speaking German, don’t wait for them to switch to English.
“Tune in and try to pick up pieces of their conversation because, by immersing yourself in it, you will find yourself absorbing little bits.
“After three or four months you won’t remember a time when you couldn’t understand German.
“It’s also OK to mix English and German together, they will love you for trying.
“The biggest compliment I had at Bayern was when the lads would say ‘good morning,’ to me and I would reply ‘guten morgen’. Then I knew I was accepted.
“I’m so jealous of Harry. I know how hard it can be at first but if he knuckles down and learns German — or at least tries to use some German — he’ll quickly be accepted and they will love him for it.
“Munich is a sensational city. There are so many nice places to visit and the supporters are very respectful.
“After training on Sunday, he can drive 45 minutes and be in Salzburg sipping a coffee and taking in the mountain scenery with his family.
“It’s a very different pace of life to London and if Bayern are doing well, he’ll be looked after royally.”
McInally scored twice on his debut against Nuremberg and finished the season with ten goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances to help fire Bayern to the title.
And the big Scot was blown away by the way he was treated — claiming no club in the world takes better care of their talent.
McInally added: “I signed for Bayern in the 80s, yet they were already doing top-level sports-science stuff that Arsene Wenger hadn’t even brought to Arsenal yet.
“Even in those days, we had teams of doctors, masseuses, physios, we were put on IV drips, long before anyone was doing anything like us.
“When I arrived, I was put through the most extreme medical ever — then sent straight to the foot doctor who told me to plunge my feet into wet plaster.
“When you sign for Bayern, the attention to detail is so professional they wanted a perfect mould of your foot imprint so they could design your own unique insole.
“I was told: ‘Bayern Munich players walk in their own footsteps, no one else’s!’ That’s the level of detail we’re talking about.
“Finally, I was told to go to another doctor and I was baffled because I thought I’d done all my tests.
“But he was the expert Bayern used to get measured up for my club lederhosen, with my initials stamped on them, which I still have to this day.
“Every Bayern player is given them as a gift from the club. Trust me, when it’s Oktoberfest, you don’t want to wear your best gear.
“It’s a huge promotional night when the entire Bayern squad put on the traditional Bavarian wear and attend the beer festival.
“There is lots of media interest and it’s a massive PR exercise because Bayern take a huge pride in representing the south of Germany, so you have a Stein or two of beer and then head off.”
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McInally desperately hopes Kane goes on to win a barrowload of trophies with Bayern.
But the England captain has been warned he have a huge target on his back. McInally said: “I was a big Scot who had done really well in England.
“So not only was I a Brit, I was also Bayern’s record signing, and defenders wanted a pop at me.
“There were a couple in my day, Michael Frontzeck and the German World Cup winner Guido Buchwald, who gave me a real hard time.
“As England’s captain and the Bundesliga’s record buy, defenders will be just as tough on Harry.
“On the plus side, he’ll be better protected than I was in those pre-VAR days.
“Harry will probably expect to get 20 goals in his first season but it’s not as easy as people think to score a lot of goals in the Bundesliga.
“Nobody ever gets 40 goals, apart from Robert Lewandowski and Gerd Muller.
“I had one really good season when I scored 16 goals but I played in a team where the goals were spread throughout the team.
“Bayern’s general manager Uli Hoeness told me he would give me 200 Deutsche Marks for every headed goal I got — I was working out how I could take free-kicks with my head!
“Bayern won’t put pressure on him by setting a target because Harry will put that pressure on himself anyway.
“It will be interesting to see if he will take Bayern’s penalties, which is a big part of his game.
“I was certainly never one of Bayern’s penalty takers — I was 16th choice out of 11 — because the German lads were all so good.”
ONLY WAY IS UP
McInally has no doubts Kane made the right decision finally walking out on Spurs.
He added: “I know leaving Tottenham was tough for him.
“But if you are going to leave a club then Bayern Munich is one you want to go to, trust me.
“Despite the size of the club and the FC Hollywood image, Bayern are essentially a family club who still believe they have a duty of care to their fans, who are all club members.
“We all used to have to sign 1,000 autographed pictures every week which were distributed to the hundreds of rural fan clubs around Germany and beyond.
“He’ll quickly discover Bayern are far bigger than he ever thought.”
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GettyKane is hoping to land his first piece of silverware with Bayern[/caption]
AlamyMcInally won plenty of trophies during his time in Germany[/caption]