Dayot Upamecano has gone from strength to strength at Bayern Munich, seeing off competition, injuries and a spate of poor form to become the cornerstone upon which this season’s Bundesliga title was built.

Upamecano has long been regarded as a physical specimen, one who combines pace and power with a touch honed playing street football with childhood friend Ousmane Dembélé in Normandy, and RB Leipzig recognised they had signed one of the game’s preeminent defensive talents when he joined from Red Bull Salzburg in 2017.

Indeed, when former Leipzig sporting director Ralf Rangnick heard that Upamecano had missed a France U19 squad that year he wanted proof there were four better centre-backs at that level. A subsequent scouting trip unearthed Ibrahima Konaté, but Rangnick’s indignation remained understandable.

Upamecano helped Leipzig to a UEFA Champions League semi-final in his third season in Saxony, a runners-up finish in the Bundesliga in his fourth, and after more than 100 appearances with the club, there was little surprise when he followed Julian Nagelsmann and Marcel Sabitzer to Bayern in the summer of 2021.

He might not have been predicted to outlast them, however…

That same physicality that made for an impressive highlight reel also masked the fact that Upamecano had proved prone to the odd error. Some of his recovery tackles only needed to be made because he had been the source of the trouble in the first place, with a loose pass or a lapse in judgement.

“He made too many mistakes. Today he had two or three situations where he lacked a bit of concentration,” stormed Nagelsmann successor Thoms Tuchel after a chastening 3-0 loss to Manchester City in the Champions League quarter-finals two seasons ago. “We’re not angry with him, he’s still young. But in a game at this level… you have to play without individual mistakes. Especially if you want to get results.”

When Bayern signed Min-jae Kim, a Serie A champion with Napoli, in the summer of 2023, the writing looked like it might be on the wall for Upamecano. Matthijs de Ligt had started just as many games at the heart of Bayern’s defence the previous season, and if anyone had to make way for the imperious South Korean, surely it would be Upamecano?

But instead, the Frenchman got his head down off the pitch, kept it up on it, and turned himself into Bayern’s most reliable defender. He still does the defensive dirty work, as an average of nearly three aerials won per 90 minutes over the last year attests, but his distribution has come on leaps and bounds, too.

Since this time last season, Upamecano has completed 96 percent of his passes. And before anyone can pick on such a figure for a centre-back by pointing out that they’re often of the few-metre variety to a fellow defender or a midfielder taking it off his toe, nearly seven per game have been progressive passes – ones that advance his team significantly closer to the opponent’s goal.

“Dayot’s on a really good path. He’s become a leader,” said Bayern sporting director Christoph Freund in February. “He’s playing well and consistently at a high level. I’m very happy for him because he’s always faced a lot of criticism. We hope that he’ll play a key role at Bayern for a long time to come.”

The safe money would now appear to be on Upamecano being the next long-term contract agreed at the Allianz Arena, following those of Jamal Musiala, Alphonso Davies and Joshua Kimmich, with his current deal set to expire in 2026.

Knee surgery has ruled Upamecano out since the end of March, although his impressive performances had already propelled Bayern most of the way to a record-extending 34th German title. Upamecano was missing from the champions’ only two league losses this season, against Mainz and Bochum. With him, they were undefeated.

Loose joints might derail an ordinary player, but loose passes are a thing of the past for the Frenchman, and once he is fit again, Upamecano can be expected to continue his trajectory as one of the finest centre-back in Bavaria, and indeed the game itself.