Bayern Munich's Harry Kane and VfB Stuttgart's Deniz Undav hold key to DFB Cup final
When Bayern Munich and VfB Stuttgart fight it out in the DFB Cup final at Berlin’s Olympiastadion on Saturday, Harry Kane and Deniz Undav will aim to fire their respective sides to glory. As the Bundesliga goalscoring charts show, the two have what it takes to make the decisive difference…
As Bayern celebrated their title win in front of their own supporters on Matchday 34, Kane was determined to end the league campaign on a high. The Englishman netted a hat-trick – his fourth of the Bundesliga season – in the Bavarians’ 5-1 victory over Cologne to take his total league tally to 36 in 2025/26.
The trio of strikes showed off Kane’s ball-striking ability. The first was a clinical volley from inside the area, while his other two efforts came from outside the box. All three left Cologne goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe with no chance.
His latest three-goal haul had no impact on the destination of the 2025/26 Torjägerkanone, though. Before kick-off, Kane was already 14 goals ahead of his closest challenger in the goal rankings, underlining his status as the deadliest striker in the Bundesliga.
This is the third successive season in which he has taken home the top goalscorer award in the German top flight – the first man to do so in each of his first three seasons in the division. As soon as he hit a hat-trick on the opening day of 2025/26 against RB Leipzig, there seemed little doubt that he would get his hands on the prize once again.
In other competitions, Kane has been just as lethal. Kylian Mbappé (15) is the only player to net more than his 14 UEFA Champions League goals, while he leads the way in the DFB Cup scorer standings with seven efforts in five games.
Should Kane find the back of the net against Stuttgart, he would achieve the rare feat of scoring in each round of the competition, something even the likes of legendary Bayern strikers Gerd Müller and Robert Lewandowski couldn’t manage.
Speaking ahead of the semi-final against Bayer Leverkusen, Kane made it clear that the DFB Cup is one he is eager to add to his trophy cabinet. “We talked a lot at the start of the season about the cup being a priority for us,” he said. “It’s been too long since our club won this competition – especially considering how dominant we’ve been in the league.
“It’s tough to win the cup because it’s a knockout competition. You have to be there in every game, and we have been this season.”
While Undav has not been as prolific as Kane this campaign, Stuttgart would not have performed as well across three competitions had he not found the back of the net so frequently. His 19 goals in the Bundesliga were bettered only by Kane, which is even more impressive when you consider he started only 25 matches.
He was particularly prolific between Matchdays 8 and 27, scoring 18 times in 20 games, and while he encountered a mini drought towards the end of the term, he was back on the scoresheet on Matchday 33 in the crucial 3-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen, which ultimately helped the Swabians secure a return to the Champions League.
Add in his three goals apiece in the UEFA Europa League and the cup, and he has amassed 25 goals in 42 matches, which is already the second-highest tally in a single season in his career and the most by any German across Europe’s top-five leagues in 2025/26. A hat-trick against Bayern would see this term become his most successful.
That may be wishful thinking, but there is no doubting Undav’s contribution to Stuttgart’s run to the final. He has started each game and already found the back of the net in the last 16, quarter-finals, and semi-finals.
Undav understands that Stuttgart are underdogs. “[We must] pray that they make mistakes, and we exploit them,” he said earlier this month. However, that does not mean that Undav and his teammates are not hungry for more success following their cup triumph in 2024/25.
“We wanted to win another title, or at least have the chance to win one,” he added. “It will be very, very, very, very difficult, but the opportunity is there.”
Kane will go into the final with the edge, and not just because his side are league champions. In seven meetings with Stuttgart since his arrival at the Allianz Arena, he has found the back of the net 11 times – more than against any other side.
In contrast, Undav is yet to strike against Bayern in six career meetings. There is a first time for everything, though, and there would be no better place to start than in the showpiece in the capital.
Either way, the two star strikers will surely have a significant say in who wins the trophy.
