02.02.2024 15:33 h

Oompah, jingles, beermug curling

Rousing oompah music, beermug curling, singing in dialect -- Harry Kane gamely tasted all the ingredients of a visit to a Bayern Munich fan club in a small Bavarian village, but drew the line at a beer.

"Maybe after the season," the prolific English striker told the hundreds of red and white clad fans from Kirchweidach.

The visit is part of a traditional meet the fans session that all Bayern players as well as coach Thomas Tuchel take turns to participate in.

"I haven't really done anything like this before back in England," said the former Tottenham star who joined Bayern in a Bundesliga record 100-million-euro fee last year.

He added: "So it's a nice feeling, you know, just to feel the fans there. To see how happy they are to have me in the team is obviously a great feeling for me and it just wants to make me perform even more than what I've been doing."

Kane has already scored 23 league goals since joining Bayern. But his fans set him further challenges in a mock "Bavarian Olympics" that included games like sliding beermugs across a table or tapping a nail into a tree trunk.

They made sure he came in first anyway, presenting him with a wooden trophy that is actually a cannon-shaped tobacco snuff.

A grilling on stage of questions sent in by children followed -- "can you score a goal against Monchengladbach?"; "are you the best in your football team?"; "are you rich?" -- "yes", "yes" and "yes", answered Kane to huge cheers each time.

The club also burst into song, singing verses written to the tune of "Jingle Bells" -- that he gamely attempted to follow along to -- in Bavarian dialect.

The England captain, who had already experienced Munich's celebrated Oktoberfest in lederhosen, admitted after the session that he still does not feel like a real Bavarian yet.

"But I'm learning, and I think the more I start to get to know the language as well that will definitely help," said Kane.