ON Tuesday night at Anfield, Kingsley Coman could have easily been wearing a Liverpool shirt instead of a Bayern one. The Munich winger has been on Liverpool’s radar for a while now. As a teenager, when he was being incredible in the Paris Saint-Germain youth teams and decided to leave before signing his first professional contract at the club, the Reds were amongst the top European clubs really keen to get him.
Coman, who was born and bred in Paris, became the youngest ever player to feature for Paris Saint-Germain aged 16, eight months and four days when he came on against Sochaux in February 2013. The Parisians have always been his team and in an ideal world, he probably would have loved to spend many more years there after joining the club as a eight-year-old. However, like others before and after him (Moussa Dembélé, Dan-Axel Zagadou just to name two), he felt like he would never really break into the first team and play regularly. Laurent Blanc, the manager at the time, didn’t do enough to reassure him either. So, he decided to go to Juventus in the summer 2014 and signed a five-year deal. After one season in Italy and only 15 games played, he left for Bayern Munich to get more game time. His original two-year loan became permanent without any debate. But once again, Liverpool could have been a realistic destination for the Frenchman.
There might be a third chance for him in the future to arrive on Merseyside but for now, at 22, he is focusing on his career in Germany. It has not always been an easy ride. When he landed in Bavaria, the idea was that he was the heir to Franck Ribéry, who was getting old and not as decisive as he used to be. Coman, at times, showed a lot of promises, a lot of talent and the potential that Paris Saint-Germain, Juve, Bayern, Liverpool and all the others had been seeing shot a while. The departure of Pep Guardiola, in the summer 2016, was a blow for the Frenchman. He had a good first season at the club under the Catalan. He even scored in the Champions League to knock out Juventus. He learnt so much from the Catalan, but it was a different story under Carlo Ancelotti. The Parisian had a tough season, featuring less, scoring less. He even thought about leaving the club.
Injuries have been the biggest issue in the last year though. Coman’s left ankle is causing him a lot of problems. He has damaged the ligaments twice now, each time missing around four months of competition. There was even a moment that he thought he would retire, at only 22, if he kept feeling so much pain in his ankle. Even walking was difficult at times. Being sidelined, missing big games, not going to the World Cup that France won last summer was really hard to take.
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It was the Kingsley #Coman show on Friday night ✨ pic.twitter.com/cv73hbIL5T
— Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) February 20, 2019
Coman himself and his entourage could not wait for him to get back to full fitness so he could relaunch his career, and show again that the future is bright for him. This is a crucial season. It is the last one for both Robben and Ribéry in Bavaria. Him and Serge Gnabry will replace them but they are big boots to fill. He has to be ready for the next stage of his career, where he will be in the driving seat, where the team will rely on him to win. He has no doubt that he can do it and that he can deliver. It is the role he has been waiting for all those years. He waited patiently, anxiously at times as well. He knew his chance would come. It’s there now. At 22, his time has come. The next 18 months at Bayern will also shape his future with the French national team. He was part of the squad in 2016 that lost the final of the Euros. He didn’t go to Russia because of injury. Didier Deschamps likes him but his nonchalance irritates him at times as well. The next few weeks will be huge for Kingsley Coman, starting with the second leg against Liverpool in two weeks’ time, where he should have a crucial role to play.
