KINGSLEY COMAN
The winger wrote his name into the history books last summer by heading in the only goal of the game in Bayern Munich’s Champions League final victory over Paris-Saint Germain, and now has his eye on a similar impact for his country.
Still aged just 24, Coman has already been part of an incredible nine league title-winning teams: two with first club PSG, two with Italian giants Juventus and five with Bayern since arriving in Bavaria in 2015.
His first France cap came in 2015, and the following year he was a regular in their Euro 2016 campaign with six appearances, including one off the bench in the final against Portugal.
It was a surprise then, when Deschamps didn’t select him for France’s successful World Cup campaign of 2018. But consistent performances for Bayern saw him reinstated for Euro 2020 qualification, and he’s gone from strength to strength, scoring three goals in six games. Susceptibility to injury is the only question mark over a player of rare talent.
Ever since the great Philipp Lahm retired from international duty back in 2014, the left side of Germany’s defence has proved something of a Bermuda Triangle for Low, with a raft of candidates falling by the wayside. Now the baton has passed to the 26-year-Gosens, a late-developer whose attacking skills and energy have played such a prominent part in Atalanta’s emergence as a force in both Italy and Europe.
Gosens, who made his full debut for Germany in a Nations League encounter with Spain last September, was in the enviable position of being spoilt for choice with his senior international options. Born to a German mother and Dutch father less than ten miles from the Netherlands border, the former Vitesse and Heracles wing-back was headhunted by the KNVB last summer, and even held informal talks with then-Oranje head coach Ronald Koeman.
Ultimately, though, he plumped for Germany, the land where he grew up. “I simply feel like a German,” he declared.