Kane surpasses Messi in Europe's best scoring start

English star Harry Kane has continued his remarkable form with Bayern Munich at the start of the 2025-26 season, enjoying his best footballing form ever, leading his team to consecutive victories that have given the Bavarian club a clear path to retaining the Bundesliga title. Coach Vincent Kompany's team has won all nine of its matches since the start of the season, a run that confirms that Bayern are in top form. Kane, 32, continued to break records last week when he became the fastest player to reach 100 goals in Europe's top five leagues since 2000, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo and Erling Haaland, who needed only 105 games to achieve the feat. In Bayern Munich's 5-1 win over Paphos last Tuesday, Kane scored another brace, taking his tally to 20 goal contributions (17 goals and three assists) since the start of the season, reaching this historic mark in record time, with the season only in September. According to the global Transfermarkt network, Kane became the fastest player in the history of the top five European leagues to reach 20 goal contributions, having needed just 742 minutes, breaking the previous record held by Argentine legend Lionel Messi, who achieved it with Barcelona in the 2011-2012 season in 749 minutes, the season in which he won the Ballon d'Or. The historical list revealed by the statistics shows that Kane and Messi dominate the top five places, with the English striker appearing in three of those seasons. Outside of this duo, Peruvian Claudio Pizarro stands out as the sixth-fastest player to reach 20 goal contributions, having needed 910 minutes with Bayern Munich in 2012. The top ten list also includes notable names such as Kylian Mbappé and Cristiano Ronaldo during his time with Real Madrid, and Erling Haaland with Manchester City.

The fastest players to reach 20 goal contributions (scoring and assisting) in a single season are:
- Kane (2025/26 season): 742 minutes. 
- Messi (11/12): 749 minutes. 
- Messi (16/17): 844 minutes. 
- Kane (20/21): 871 minutes. 
- Kane (24/25): 891 minutes. 
- Pizarro (12/13): 910 minutes. 
- Haaland (22/23): 915 minutes. 
- Guirassy (23/24): 953 minutes. 
- Mbappé (18/19): 959 minutes. 
- Cristiano Ronaldo (14/15): 990 minutes.