Borussia Mönchengladbach’s Haris Tabakovic speaks on inspiration gleaned from Harry Kane | OneFootball

Borussia Mönchengladbach striker Haris Tabakovic has totally turned his Bundesliga fortunes around. The former Hoffenheim flop went from one of the German top flight’s most maligned strikers to one of its most celebrated ones in the span of a couple of months. The Gladbach loanee currently sits in third place behind Harry Kane and Jonathan Burkardt in the 2025/26 Bundesliga scoring charts through 11 matchdays. 

On particular metric (the fact that Tabakovic is averaging 0.7 goals per game this season) even puts the 31-year-old right up among the European elite. Kane (1.27 goals per game), Erling Haaland (1.17 goals per game), Kylian Mbappé (1.0 goal per game) and Robert Lewandowski (0.8 goals per game) are the only players currently topping the Bosnian international.

In an interview with the Wednesday print edition of Sport Bild Tabakovic spoke on both his own personal and his club’s remarkable sporting turnaround. When confronted with the above stats, the former Hertha professional went into great detail about what Kane had taught him about playing as a No. 9. 

“Harry Kane is for me the perfect embodiment of a No. 9,” Tabakovic said. “I’ve never seen a striker play as deep as him. He’s sometimes back working as deep as a No. 6 and hitting these amazing diagonal balls forward. To put it bluntly, Harry Kane has served as a huge motivator for me.

“After observing how he tackles and defends in his own penalty area, it directed my attention to some aspects of my own game,” Tabakovic continued. “There were situations when I was playing when I thought, ‘I can’t remain forward in this case. I have to sprint back and help defend.’

“This was also true when I was reviewing my performances on video tape,” Tabakovic concluded. “I told myself: ‘Get this into your head. If a striker of Harry Kane’s quality is engaged enough to work at the back, then that’s something that every striker should do.’ I see myself as a hard worker who takes responsibility.“

GGFN | Peter Weis