It wasn’t so clear at first that it would be another comfortable evening for Kingsley Coman out in the north of town. Portugal’s capitals and the French, this connection has been a special one since the Champions League final in 2020. When you think of Coman in Lisbon, you usually also think of: that header against PSG in the 59th minute, the winning goal burned itself into the heart of Bayern. But this time the Feinfuß slipped properly.
A dribbling attempt on the left ended with Comans belly landing, the stadium smirked with glee, the ball was lost. Benfica’s outsider ambitions were based on this premise: If anything should work here, then only this way. The overpowering Bavarians had to trip over their own legs. But Coman only stumbled this once.
He spent the rest of the game in what American sports commentators call “clinic”. The word is a so-called “false friend”, it by no means means “clinical” in German. Anyone who holds a “clinic” gives all contemporary witnesses private lessons according to the motto: Look here, that’s how you do it, and now please send the video to all adult education centers and football academies! The 25-year-old performed his entire repertoire: he hit crosses, shot at goal from an acute angle, he let opponents tumble with deceit, celebrated ball acceptance for the design museum, and then he grabbed Rafa Silva in front of Thomas Müller’s supposed 1-0 (52. Minute, whistled) just in the vertigo vice.
Specialists had to operate on Coman’s heart, and recovery went faster than expected
“Kingsley Coman turned up brutally, especially in the second half,” said substitute coach Dino Toppmöller, although he didn’t really want to highlight anyone (but then he also highlighted Gnabry and Neuer). Exquisite moments from someone that makes Bayern think again and again: Oops, where did he come from? Oh right, we still have him in the squad.
Coman is something like the most successful part-time employee in Bavaria. This slender professional has won everything since arriving in 2015, but at the same time he has hurt almost everywhere: capsule, syndesmosis tape, outer tape – there are few strands on his body that have never been affected. But in the end it pinched somewhere else: at the heart, where everything comes together.
After a “small, light heartbeat, a slight rhythm disturbance”, as coach Nagelsmann said in mid-September, “he sometimes had less air for a short time”. So breathing problems, a threatening-sounding diagnosis for an endurance athlete. Specialists had to operate on Coman, which was followed by cardio training to regain stamina, but in the end his recovery went faster than expected. Coman ended his several-week waiting loop in his triumph city Lisbon, where he also reported back to the club with his starting XI comeback.
He feels “very good”, he reported in an interview with Dazn, “I am very happy that I can play again”. And that “without heart problems”, as he added again in German. And so his appearance turned out to be a statement on his own account, because after rumors about him in the summer (ManUnited should have been interested) he is still pending a contract extension.
It is currently unclear whether Coman will accept the club’s offer by 2025, or whether the Bavarians may, for their part, aim to make a sale with the French in order to deal more closely with Salzburg’s Karim Adeyemi, 19, instead. He would have a few “assets” compared to Coman, as it is called today: He was born in Munich and he has never been injured for longer.
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