Kingsley Coman doesn’t believe in dreams. Long ago he achieved the path fantasized over as a young boy in Moissy, 20 miles southeast of Paris.
More is to be written but dreams are no longer. The 26-year-old possesses more silverware than most players – let alone clubs – could wish for.
A World Cup, Champions League and Bundesliga season all loom on the horizon, but Coman isn’t wishing for success on all fronts.
Rather, he wants it all.
Sitting in a plush olive leather chair inside the luxuriant Ritz-Carlton lounge in Washington DC, Coman looks cucumber cool even after a nine-hour flight from Munich.
Striking white sneakers slashed with electric blue, yellow and pink highlights help, though there is a calmness to his demeanor and belief in what is to come.
‘I think that I have achieved my dream but now I have goals,’ he exclusively tells Dailymail.com.
‘I think that I have achieved my dream but now I have goals,’ Kingsley Coman said
Coman scored the winning goal in the Champions League final against PSG in 2019-20 season
Coman admitted he almost left Bayern Munich before signing a new contract in January
‘A dream for me is really something you build when you are young. It’s like a goal but when you are young, you are really dreaming about it.
‘Now it’s different. A dream is a goal that you don’t really know if you can reach.[Now] It’s more like I set a goal that I know I can reach.
‘The goals I have, I know if I work hard and of course with some faith and luck,, are goals that I can achieve. I still have a lot [to achieve].’
Tellingly, when Coman speaks of his most imminent desires, immediate reference is made to what he can conquer with his contemporaries.
For all of the trickery and flair Coman is team-first, evidenced in his ascension to Bayern Munich’s leadership group last season.
As for what’s to come, Coman has his mind fixated on achieving what he and many before him have not.
Coman is a competitive animal, used to dining at the top of Europe’s finest of tables
‘I want to win the World Cup because I missed it (through injury),’ he said. ‘So, I want something with the national team. I want to win more Champions Leagues with Bayern.
‘There’s not a lot of people that have won it a lot of times, so I want to win more. Just to win more trophies as a team and maybe as an individual player as well.’
Coman has already become a serial team winner, amassing 27 trophies since his professional career began with Paris Saint-Germain in 2013 – for context, teammate Thomas Muller has 31 trophies, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have 38 and 33 over their careers respectively.
A league title in each of Coman’s nine seasons has followed and shows no signs of slowing down ahead of the new Bundesliga season.
Coman is a competitive animal, used to dining at the top of Europe’s tables with PSG, Juventus, Bayern and the French national team. He expects the best of those around him and naturally, himself. So, what is it that he wants?
Is it to be the assist leader? ‘I would say no,’ Coman replies. Is it the Ballon d’Or?
‘Exactly. I would say it’s more like the Ballon d’Or because this is the best of the best.’
He said: ‘I want to win more. Just more trophies as a team and maybe as an individual player’
Prior to putting pen to paper, there was strong consideration to leaving for England or Spain
After missing the 2018 World Cup, France’s Kingsley Coman is focused on Qatar this winter
‘The rest is good but when I set up goals I want them to be big, to also dream a little bit about it. Even if I can’t call it a dream, it’s like you need to aim really high to achieve.
‘If you finish third or fifth, you’re already a big, big player. My goal is to be a big, big player but I prefer to target to be the best and then we’ll see what happens.’
To be clear, Coman doesn’t have the Golden Ball at the forefront of his thoughts. Though it exists in someplace inside his ruthlessly ambitious mind. For him to have reached the heights he has, there needs to be a limitlessness to his approach.
‘If you want to be the best you have this somewhere in your mind,’ he says. This is as close to dreaming as Coman gets.
The Frenchman signed a new contract with Bayern in January, formally extending his stay in Bavaria until 2027. If he sees out the deal, Coman will have completed a decade with the record champions.
Prior to putting pen to paper, there was strong consideration of leaving Germany for England or Spain.
Coman will join forces with new signing Sadio Mane in what will be a rapid Bayern attack
Coman has triumphed in Italy, France and Germany, but wants to play in England eventually
Coman did not consider moving back to his homeland before his contract was extended
‘They are definitely two leagues that I would like to play in one day. Before we reached an agreement, I really thought about it.
‘I wanted to try something new but, in the end, I talked with the club and we found an agreement. I didn’t talk about anything but football and where we want to go together. For me this was the best [option].
‘Even if I want to go somewhere else, if I really like who I am, if they really respect me, they really value me then I am like, I am still young.
‘It was between England and Spain because I wanted to try something that I haven’t done. So, France and Italy weren’t really an option.
‘I really wanted to try something new, a different country, different people, a new league. Of course, the Premier League because it is the best league in the world and Spain because the weather is amazing.’
Coman did not reveal which clubs, if any, he had contact with before extending with Bayern, but did elucidate his admiration for a select few of England’s elite.
The Frenchman signed a new contract with Bayern in January, extending his stay until 2027
‘I would say in general the best teams. I’m someone who aims for the best. I really like the way City play, of course with Guardiola. I like the way Liverpool play. I like Chelsea as a team, so I will say the three big teams.’
The Chronicles of Coman could one day include excerpts written in other languages but for now the Frenchman is committed to repaying the faith and further etching himself into Bavarian folklore.
‘I felt like I had more to do here and that’s why I made the choice to stay. My contract just started. I want to show the club that they were right to really believe in me, to give me this opportunity.
‘After a while if I feel like I have done my job again – or even more – then maybe I will start to think about trying something else and another country.’
For someone with the standards of Coman it’s unclear whether completing the job is ever truly possible.
Is it a never-ending quest to add trophy after trophy? Time will be the ultimate revealer.
Coman is committed to repaying the faith and further etching himself into Bavarian folklore
There may even be a world in which Coman could thrive as Prime Minister of his homeland
Coman could play a decisive role in the destination of the Champions League and World Cup
One thing is apparent; King Coman is always working toward something higher.
There may even be a world in which he could thrive as Prime Minister of his homeland.
‘I really love France. You have some sides that we are better than other countries or that I really prefer, then there are some sides that we are really less good than,’ he laughs.
‘Every country has good sides and bad sides. I think now if I can run the country, I will be able to take a good mix of France, Italy, Germany, US: just for the holiday part. That would be a good mix!’
Whether Coman conquers the world in Qatar this winter, Germany come May, or countries uncharted in the future, they won’t be dreams come true.
They will be realities which he has conceived and achieved.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk