‘It was the first big moment of the year,” Kingsley Coman says as he remembers being picked for his international debut just five tumultuous months ago. Coman has finished work for the day and, with Bayern Munich’s deserted training ground looking pristine in the April sunshine, the French teenager has time to reflect on a string of extraordinary moments for him this season.

Apart from making his first appearance for France against Germany on the terrible November night when Paris was already under attack, Coman has emerged with an uplifting personal story. He grew up on the outskirts of Paris, after his parents had moved from Guadeloupe, and his prodigious talent was soon apparent. In February 2013, aged 16, he became Paris Saint‑Germain’s youngest-ever first‑team player – after nine years at their academy. Coman has since played for even more illustrious powerhouses in Juventus and Bayern Munich.

Six weeks ago, having been signed by Bayern in August last year on a two-year loan from Juventus, Coman galvanised the German team and led a remarkable comeback which knocked out his Italian club in the last 16 of the Champions League. Losing 2-0 at home after an hour and trailing 4-2 on aggregate, Bayern were transformed by Coman’s arrival on the pitch.

Kingsley Coman celebrates scoring against his parent club Juventus in the Champions League last 16. Photograph: Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images

Coman, who has the most assists in the Champions League this season, provided the cross which resulted in Thomas Müller’s 91st-minute equaliser. In extra-time, Coman scored the goal, running with the ball from deep inside his own half, that sealed Juventus’s elimination.

On Wednesday Bayern play the first leg of their semi-final at Atlético Madrid. Coman, who came on for Juventus as a substitute in last year’s final defeat to Barcelona, is entitled to dream of a winner’s medal next month. He will also feature in the European Championship in France this summer.

“I was very proud,” Coman says of his reaction to being selected for France in November last year. “It felt like the end of a cycle in my life, and the beginning of a new one. Now I am focused. With each new selection I hope to be in the team and make a difference.”

His debut carried a more distressing undertow – for a mere football match that Friday night was made redundant by the 130 lives lost in the Paris atrocities. The attacks began in Saint‑Denis, just outside the national stadium during the game, as three explosions were detonated by suicide bombers. More devastating attacks soon followed.

While the explosions could be heard on the pitch, Coman explains “we only learnt the truth at the end of the match. My feelings were just of shock. But at the start, because it was my debut, I was happy.”

Coman talks softly in French, his words carrying a sparse, simple resonance. “We played the match. We won the match. After that we went into the changing rooms. It was then that they told us. And there was the TV. We saw the images and suddenly understood what had happened.”

Four days later Coman walked out at Wembley to face England in a sombre stadium. He played the second half of a match in which the French players looked stunned. It hardly mattered that England won 2-0 when, beyond football, solidarity with France was paramount.

“It was difficult but we had to show we were strong. It was important for France. We had to play but nobody was forced to go on to the field. If someone felt too shocked he could have told the coach [Didier Deschamps]. But it was right to play.”

We only learnt the truth at the end of the match. My feelings were just of shock

Coman points out, with England’s and France’s players standing together in a circle before the game, as the crowd sang La Marseillaise: “It was then that we saw the humanity of sport.”

Last month, before France’s first football international in Paris since the attacks, a thousand policemen and watchful snipers were accompanied by the stadium’s silence for those who had been killed in Brussels on 22 March. Yet France and Coman produced an exhilarating display. They swept aside Russia 4-2, with Coman scoring a brilliant goal, and the crowd were lifted.

“It was the most beautiful atmosphere I’ve experienced,” Coman says. “The others who played for France many times told me it was the best atmosphere. You could really feel the fans. It felt like a mobilisation of the supporters.”

Coman was only two when a multiracial French team united the country while winning the World Cup at home in 1998. He can sense a surging optimism for Euro 2016. “You can feel the hope because we have a very good team. And the fact it will be played at home is important. With this team, we have great desire to do well.”

Against Russia, four previously fringe players scored the goals. André-Pierre Gignac and Dimitri Payet had been out of favour, N’Golo Kanté made his debut and Coman won just his third cap with electrifying pace and trickery. “There is a definite feeling that some young French players are on the rise,” Coman says. “It’s good for the team.”

Kanté has had a great season in England and Coman smiles. “Leicester City have all the cards in their hands. I’ve talked to Kanté and it’s a special story for him and Leicester.”

Coman’s own special story burst into life last month. The weekend before their decisive match against Juventus, Coman provided three assists in a 5-0 thumping of Werder Bremen. “I knew I was playing well but the stats are decisive. They add credibility and confidence. And Juventus was a very special game for me. Watching from the bench, I knew it was difficult for Bayern. I also saw my old Juventus team-mates. But once I came on I thought nothing about friendship. It was just about playing well for Bayern.”

When Juventus allowed Coman to move on loan their manager Massimiliano Allegri made a barbed comment. He suggested Coman could leave if he was “not willing to fight for his place”

“I didn’t feel I had anything to prove,” Coman says. “Juventus have seen me in training and, a little bit, in [15] matches. They knew my qualities. The main difference is the style of football at Bayern suits me. I can show my qualities better here. When I came on [with Bayern losing 2-0] it was complicated. But, in football, everything is possible. You just have to really believe it. I had to give everything.”

When he relives the way in which he set up Müller’s desperately late equaliser, Coman’s face splits open with an irresistible smile. “It was the most beautiful moment I’ve ever had as a professional footballer. My goal was the second most beautiful moment.”

Was Pep Guardiola a big factor in Coman moving to Bayern? “Yes. He has helped me a lot – his style of play suits me. He gave me a chance to play and some good advice: ‘Don’t ask yourself questions. Just play.’ He likes players who are direct and who dribble so he gave me a simple instruction: ‘Just play the way you play.’

“Even when it’s not going too well he always tells me to keep at it. He says: ‘Go, go, go …’ But I don’t need to be pushed. It’s me who puts the pressure on myself. I want the pressure of playing. When he put me on the pitch it was the best thing he could do for me.”

Did he initially feel unsettled by Guardiola’s intensity? “No. I just have a positive reaction to him. We know he wants more, that he demands more, but it’s the opposite of fear. We can feel him pushing us in the right direction. When I heard he was leaving [at the end of the season to join Manchester City] I was sorry. I’ve only known him this season but I have bonded with him. But I know this is how football works.

“A new coach is coming here – and Carlo Ancelotti gave me my debut at PSG. So it’s just as well for me that it is him. It’s good for the club. But, yes, it will be difficult at first. For me Guardiola is one of the best coaches in the world, if not the best.”

Will Guardiola be an immediate success with Manchester City? “Definitely. His style will work perfectly with them.”

Bayern have the option to buy Coman for €21m when his €7m loan deal concludes at the end of next season. He wants to stay at Bayern for “many years” – but does he harbour ambitions to play in the Premier League? “For me it is the most interesting league in the world. But I am thinking of the next three years and I can only see myself at Bayern. My career is just starting so you never know. But England has a league where every player would like to play.”

Coman describes the Premier League as ‘the most interesting league in the world’ but says he can see himself only at Bayern for the next three years. Photograph: Frank Bauer/The Guardian

Coman has great speed and skill, as well as versatility in playing on both the left and right flank. He also appears to have an unshakeable conviction. His youth coach, Nicola Dourou, who nurtured him at his first club US Sénart‑Moissy, has driven from Paris to Munich to visit Coman. Before the interview, Dourou flicks through the photos on his phone in a quickfire tour of Coman’s feats at the age of six and seven. “Kingsley always had incredible self-belief,” Dourou stresses.

Coman embraced a move to Juventus when he felt that Laurent Blanc, who replaced Ancelotti, would not play him enough at PSG. In the same way he felt under-used at Juventus and preferred to move to Bayern. There were doubts in Germany but, on his arrival, Coman was startlingly assured and said: “I am capable of making the difference at any moment in a match.”

Did he have any internal doubts over the move? “There are always doubts when you are young and arrive at a big club. But I had confidence in myself and knew if I was doing a good job I had the possibility to play regularly. I did it.”

Coman is close to Paul Pogba, with whom he has played for Juventus and France. He has now also faced Pogba as an opponent in the Champions League. “When you play with him you appreciate more deeply his qualities on and off the pitch. Automatically you try harder. If I lose the ball I’m going to run even harder to win it back for Pogba. When I play against him it’s the same – just reversed. If there is a ball between me and Pogba I will go in even stronger than against anybody else – because he is my friend. I know if I don’t win our duel he’ll take the piss out of me.”

He laughs, sounding like the world’s best teenage footballer. Does Coman dream, like Pogba, of eventually becoming the best footballer in the world? “All athletes have the goal to be the best,” he says calmly, knowing words matter little compared to the ordeals and triumphs of the past five months – and the challenges that await. “Every day I want to progress. The ultimate goal would be to become the best player in the world – but I am still very far from it. I have so much work to do but, one day, if it is possible …”