Bundesliga
Why 'King' Coman deserved new deal
2020/21 was the best season yet in the career of Kingsley Coman, but there is arguably even better to come from the Frenchman, who has just extended his contract with Bayern Munich through to 2027.
It stands to reason that the Frenchman has been rewarded with a new deal that will see him given ample opportunity to improve on the success his compatriot Franck Ribery enjoyed in Bavaria.
Ribery won nine Bundesliga titles with Bayern and Coman, who is already on six, is on course to eclipse that achievement, and bundesliga.com takes a look at why the 25-year-old is fully doing justice to a status spelled out by the first four letters of his Christian name.
If Ribery was 'Le Roi', Coman is the 'King' of Bayern.
His five goals and 12 assists last term came from the only season in his career to date in which he has managed to make over 25 appearances. His previous best of six goals and five assists came in 2018/19, when he fell just short of appearing in two thirds of Bayern's Bundesliga fixtures.
Unfortunately for Coman, injuries have got in the way of what would arguably have been even more impressive statistics for a man who, according to Bayern's CEO Oliver Kahn, people "come to the stadium" to see.
"When he's on the ball, the fans get excited," Kahn said as the ink dried on Coman's new Bayern deal.
Bayern's sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic added: "'King', with his quality as a provider and his goalscoring threat, is of utmost importance for the future of our team," underlining the importance of the French Fantasista in a side, which Salihamidzic hopes will "continue to compete at the top of Europe in the coming years."
With Coman on board, that seems a formality.
Watch: Kingsley Coman's top five Bundesliga goals
Among the many – ten, give or take – different injuries or ailments to have kept Coman sidelined down the years was the potentially career-ending heart operation he underwent in September 2021. Yet he has come back from that recent setback in a career riddled with knocks and niggles stronger than ever before.
"After the whole heart ordeal, he's been sensational," said Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann. "He's got outstanding qualities and can hurt any defence, and that's why we want to keep hold of him, for many more years."
Coman has had a hand in seven goals in 13 games across all competitions since surgery, and while he has missed Bayern's last two league fixtures with another muscular injury, he is still bang on course for making 2021/22 the best season of his career, and after supplying the goal which earned Bayern the UEFA Champions League title in 2020 and sealed a treble, who better than Coman to bring the cup with the big ears back to Munich?
"Things are going so much better since I had my operation," Coman confided. "I'm now able to focus more on my game."
Meanwhile, Coman's contract extension is further evidence that Bayern are serious about challenging for the top titles, and that can only be mutually beneficial.
"There's hardly any other club who can currently offer such a big opportunity of winning the Champions League as regularly as we can," said former Bayern president Uli Hoeneß to Munich's Abendzeitung newspaper.
Bayern face Salzburg over two legs for a place in the quarter finals of this season's Champions League, while their lead at the top of the Bundesliga over second-placed Borussia Dortmund is six points – thanks in no small way to the goal Coman struck to make it 2-1 in the first Klassiker of the season, which Bayern edged 3-2.
That was surprisingly Coman's first goal against Dortmund, yet in 16 games against the Black & Yellows, he has been on the winning side 15 times, losing just once.
That's not a bad record to have against your nearest rivals for the Bundesliga title, and that nugget is not lost on Bayern as they bid for more titles with the best Coman ever fuelling their fantasies.