Joshua Kimmich set for extension at Bayern

According to Bild, Joshua Kimmich and Bayern Munich have discussed a contract extension that would keep the budding superstar in Bavaria until 2023.

His current contract, which is set to expire in 2020, has him earning and estimated €3 million annually, per Bild, a figure that is surely going to double — maybe even triple — once all parties come to an agreement.

“Karl-Heinz Rummenigge first approached us in the summer asking if we could imagine extending our working relationship,” confirmed Kimmich’s agent Uli Ferber to Sport Bild. “We then sat down together in the fall and want to have a further meeting before the end of the year.”

Kimmich, 22, has undergone a rapid rise at Bayern. His debut season saw him fill in as an emergency center-back for a large majority of the second half of the 2015/16 season, leading to his initial senior team call-up for the German national team.

Once in the national team squad, he spent little time establishing himself as a crucial member of the first XI, earning a spot on the Euro 2016 Team of the Tournament as a right-back, a position which he has occupied for Die Mannschaft ever since.

Though he hit a bit of a rough patch during his second season at Bayern, he has quickly proved to be one of the best players in the squad this season, having played 1,551 out of a possible 1,740 minutes to date.

Kimmich is a player Bayern has lock up. He’s the future of Bayern, the future of the national team, and, though early, a potential heir to Manuel Neuer’s captaincies when the time comes. Letting him slip away would be a mistake that ranks right alongside Toni Kroos’ departure in 2014. Any positive news concerning a possible contract extension has to be music to Bayern fans’ ears.