Healthy and with a new contract, Austin FC defender Zan Kolmanic ready to thrive in MLS

Zan Kolmanic is ready to give back to his club and city.

Kolmanic, who signed a contract extension Friday with Austin FC through the 2025 season with a team option for 2026, said the commitment the club has shown him the past year while rehabbing from a torn ACL injury is something he’d like to reciprocate.

“I feel an obligation back to this club for all the trust and energy they’ve put into me,” said Kolmanic, a left back who has been with Austin FC since its inaugural season in 2021. “And we’ve got a good thing going on here.”

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A native of Slovenia who is still only 24, Kolmanic has been a consistent starter when healthy. He missed the final seven months of 2023 with his knee injury, something that he admitted was initially tough to deal with, but not something he could dwell on.

“The day of the injury was very sad for me," he said. "I talked to all my family, friends and agent and let them know what was going on, but then after that it was straight back to work. I’m the kind of person that’s going to do everything possible so that when I do come back, I won’t have any worries that I didn’t do enough.”

While the rest of the team went through normal preparations and a typical season in 2023, Kolmanic lived in the training room doing rehab.

He spoke with other players that had suffered the same injury for advice, which he noted helped, and in whatever he did, operated with a mindset of being ready for the start of 2024.

Following a successful training camp, Kolmanic started and played at least 68 minutes the first three games this season before suffering a minor hamstring injury after coming on as a sub against Philadelphia in mid-March.

Though he could have panicked with another physical setback, Kolmanic noted it’s something he knew could happen.

“The body is under a lot of stress going full speed after that much time out,” he said. “Hamstrings are part of the process in recovering from an ACL, which I knew about. It was a minor thing. I wasn’t worried about it, and I’m back to being healthy and ready to help the team.”

Kolmanic would have been a free agent at the end of the season, but he said that option or going back to Europe — he played in Slovenia for four years before joining Austin FC — were things he never wanted to explore.

“There’s a good group here, and no matter who comes or leaves, there’s always a strong bond between the players,” he said. “What I like most about the club is it’s kind of like a family. Some of these guys I’ve known quite a long time, and that leads to on the field, there’s kind of this connection between the players.”

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Healthy and with a new contract, Austin FC's Zan Kolmanic ready to thrive