After several setbacks in the search for a new coach, FC Bayern is approaching the finish line and is facing a rather surprising choice. The Munich team is said to have reached a verbal agreement with Vincent Kompany to succeed Thomas Tuchel and are already negotiating the terms of the transfer with his club.
The Belgian’s employer is currently not one of the big names in European or even British football: it is Burnley FC, which has just been relegated from the Premier League. The team from the 82,000-strong city in the far north of England, champions in 1921 and 1960, ended up eight points behind a non-relegation place.
The fact that the great FC Bayern would be courting the titleless coach of a relegated team may have been unimaginable just a few weeks ago. After numerous rejections, including from Xabi Alonso, Julian Nagelsmann and Ralf Rangnick, and the failed attempt to perhaps try again with Tuchel, the shortlist has been extremely thinned out. Especially since the repeated public rejections from the coaching guild may have deterred candidates from the top category, so as not to be seen as a stopgap solution.
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The question arises: is the 38-year-old Kompany more than that? If you only take his playing career into account, Bayern could sign him blindly. The defensive specialist was highly gifted and his technique and physique were already so advanced that he played in the first team of RSC Anderlecht at the age of 17. At 18, he won the championship in 2004 and was Belgium’s footballer of the year. Kompany went to HSV in 2006, who paid a club record transfer fee of around ten million euros for him.
Kompany played 89 international matches for Belgium
Two years later, the 1.90 meter tall professional moved on to Manchester City, where he soon became captain and celebrated his greatest successes, including four English championships. He played a total of 89 international matches for Belgium. Kompany was tough and uncompromising, but always intelligent. He was also seen as an extended arm of his coaches on the pitch from an early age, not least under Manchester’s star coach Pep Guardiola.
Kompany in the HSV jersey in 2008
Source: picture-alliance/Press photo ULMER/Bjoern Hake
But what can coach Kompany do?
In 2019, he returned to his roots and signed a three-year contract as player-coach in Anderlecht. He chose a smooth transition from his previous job to his new one. At first, however, this only worked moderately, so the club soon redistributed the tasks and Kompany was to concentrate on his role as a player, at least on match days. There was also trouble with the association because the professional did not have the necessary coaching license. Anderlecht was fined and threatened with having its license revoked.
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Kompany then took part in coaching courses and at least officially took on the role of player. In 2020, he finally took over the position of head coach. In the following two seasons, he led the team to third place in the league twice and lost the cup final against Genk in the second year. The club and coach then agreed to terminate his contract.
78 goals conceded with Burnley FC
For the 2022/23 season, Kompany, who is considered an energetic and inspiring coach, returned to England and took over Burnley FC after they had been relegated from the Premier League. They were promoted straight away, but were relegated again last season with just 24 points. Burnley has never had so few points in its top division history. The 78 goals conceded, more than two on average per game, are also not something you would highlight in your application documents.
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But Kompany was hardly blamed for all of this. The squad was considered extremely weak. And he was not fired either; in fact, Kompany is under contract until 2028. Bayern are said to be already negotiating with club owner Alan Pace about his release, which would require a high transfer fee, as was the case when Nagelsmann was signed from RB Leipzig. In Nagelsmann’s case, it was around 20 million euros.
While the young coach had come via Hoffenheim and Leipzig and Bayern was seen as a logical step, more imagination is needed for the appointment of Kompany. His appointment would be an experiment in a position that has become a hot-swing chair. But at least it would be an experiment with a student of Guardiola, whose three-year tenure many in Munich still look back on fondly.
Guardiola raves about Kompany
“I like what he does,” the Catalan said favorably at the beginning of the year about Kompany’s work in Burnley: “I have the feeling that he will end up at Manchester. He is already a great coach.” It should be mentioned here that Guardiola is well known for his infatuations, and they are also familiar with that in Munich (“I love Mario Götze”).
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Nevertheless, Kompany, who speaks French, English and German, wants to play the kind of football that Guardiola values so much. And that should work better with the players at FC Bayern than with those at FC Burnley: dominant play with compact defending is the motto. He once described it like this in an interview: “I ask my team to press high and create chances that way. That means standing compact, winning the duels and controlling the game.”
The Munich team was particularly lacking defensively last season. The third-placed team did not concede 78 goals, but even 45 is far too many for a club with such ambitions. “If you are convinced of him as a coach, then you should finally let him sign,” said record international player Lothar Matthäus to Kompany. Time is of the essence, says the former Bayern captain: “You have to present your coach as soon as possible in order to push forward with the planning.”
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Potential candidates for sale, but also potential new signings such as national player Chris Führich from VfB Stuttgart, want to know who will be their boss. However, the supervisory board, headed by Uli Hoeneß and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, must approve the appointment of a coach. And Matthäus is skeptical about this: “I can’t imagine that all the bosses at Bayern Munich are convinced by Kompany.”
Maybe Kompany will score points with them with a sentence from his time at Burnley: “You don’t start out as a winner, you become one.”
