Uli Hoeneß says Kingsley Coman contract renewal about more than just money at Bayern Munich

It’s official. Kingsley Coman has renewed his contract with Bayern Munich, keeping him at the club until 2027. After a row of uncertainty regarding his future at the club that had even gone as far as him shopping around for a Premier League suitor last summer, talks advanced and pen was put to paper earlier today. Coman follows on from Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich, who have already signed contract extensions with Thomas Muller, Serge Gnabry, Robert Lewandowski, and Manuel Neuer expected to do the same at some point in the future.

While the club has not officially confirmed the finances of the new deal, it hass been heavily suggested that Coman will now become one of the top earners for Bayern in the 15 million euros or above category. It had been reported earlier this week that the new deal, after add-ons, would equate to roughly 17 million euros per year.

Speaking on Coman’s contract extension, former Bayern president Uli Hoeneß said that it’s about way more than just money for both Coman and the club. “It’s not just about the money. There is hardly a club that can currently offer such great opportunities to win the Champions League as regularly as we do,” he said (Abendzeitung). Ironically enough, it was Coman that scored the winning goal in the 2020 Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain in Lisbon, Portugal that clinched Bayern another historic treble.

Photo by Sebastian Widmann/Getty Images

While Coman might be seeing a significant increase in his wages, Hoeneß said it’s much more than that for players that decide to pen long term contracts at Bayern. The vision and drive of the club and the living conditions in Munich add so much more to the decision making processes for players in Hoeneß’s opinion. “Whether you earn more or less a million now is not important. You can still only eat one steak a day. I already have the feeling that the players attach great importance to the incredible quality of life in our city, to the safety here for their children, to the German healthcare system, the school system. All of that plays a role. And it’s not like you don’t earn much at FC Bayern, either,” he explained.

Hoeneß also revealed that the club did not want to go through another David Alaba situation. Bayern did not want to have negotiations falter to the point where, like Alaba inevitably did in joining Real Madrid, leave on a free transfer when his contract expired. That’s something they wanted to avoid at all costs (no pun intended), especially for a player of Coman’s value in the transfer market. “That with David Alaba an important player has left the club, can happen sometimes, but it should not happen too often. Then something would be torn out of our mosaic,” he urged.