After a great deal of back and forth as this past summer transfer window drew to a close, Kingsley Coman eventually made the move from Bayern Munich to Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr to play alongside the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mane, and João Félix among others. The French winger joined the club on a three-year deal that keeps him in Saudi Arabia until the summer of 2028 and he made the move for a fee of roughly €30-35m after add-ons. Prior to leaving for Al-Nassr, Coman enjoyed a well-decorated
career with the German Rekordmeister that spanned over the course of 10 years, during which he tallied over 70 goals across all competitions, the most memorable of which coming in the 2020 Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain in Lisbon, Portugal.
Coman has now followed suit with the trend of European footballing stars making the move to the Middle East at a perceivably pre-retirement age as the mega inflation of funds in that region of the world far outpaces the top five major European leagues. Generational money is on offer for players that choose to make the switch to the Saudi Pro League and, at a certain point, it becomes far too difficult to refuse.
Recently speaking to French outlet Le Parisien, Coman explained that he does understand why a lot of people were surprised that he made the jump to Al-Nassr from Bayern at only 29 years of age. “I totally understand, even I was surprised. At the start of the transfer window, in my head, I saw myself playing one more season at Bayern. In the end, Al-Nassr were interested in my situation and the transfer was completed in five days. I weighed the pros and cons. I felt it was the best solution,” he rationalized (via @iMiaSanMia).
For most of the transfer window while Al-Nassr was showing interest in Coman, there were other European clubs that had also loosely shown interest in trying to sign him. A potential move to the Premier League in England was one of the options that could have panned out, but Coman ultimately wanted to wind up at a club where he knew solid starts and minutes would be the most feasible. “I had approaches from England and Spain, but at most of those clubs, I was just an option. If they chose me, it was perhaps because two other players didn’t want to join them or because I had lower financial expectations,” Coman explained.
At Bayern, he had his fair share of injury problems, but was often times a regular starter, but this season, he would be competing for time with Luis Diaz, Michael Olise, Serge Gnabry and Jamal Musiala once he makes his return from injury. That was part of the reason why Coman knew it was probably the best for him to find a new club without going anywhere else in Europe where he would not have already had the established respect that he had with the reigning Bundesliga champions. “At Bayern, I was already one of the options, but I was known and respected within the club. I don’t think it made sense to go elsewhere in Europe. If I took into account my family situation, the finances, and the sporting project, Bayern offered the best conditions in Europe,” the winger explained.
