By Ciaran Varley
Six months into his role as Bayern Munich manager, Vincent Kompany's
side are eight points clear at the top of the Bundesliga and on course to
regain the title they relinquished to Bayer Leverkusen last season.
The 38-year-old coach was brought in after Bayern ended the 2023-24
season 18 points off the top spot in third under Thomas Tuchel - their worst
league finish since 2010-11.
Kompany became the Bundesliga's first black manager and only the second
black manager in any of Germany's professional football leagues.
However, he is not the first in his family to make history as a black
pioneer. Kompany's father, Pierre, arrived in Belgium in 1975 as a refugee from
what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo and went on to be elected as the
country's first black mayor when he topped the
poll for municipality of Ganshoren in Brussels, in 2018.
Troy Townsend, former head of development for Kick It Out, says he and
others are "galvanised by the potential for success" of Kompany who,
he believes, will "pave the way" for others.
In a Football Daily special on BBC Radio 5 Live, presenter Eli Mengem
explores what has made Kompany into the man he is today and how the Belgian has
become a trailblazer for black coaches.
'No fear' - early career at
Anderlecht
Former Anderlecht manager Hugo Broos was the man who gave Kompany his
senior team debut aged 17, when he selected the defender to play in a Champions
League second qualifying round tie against AFC Rapid Bucuresti.
The 72-year-old says the youngster "had no fear".
"We were immediately convinced we had a great player," he
says.
Kompany was one of a golden generation of Belgian footballers, alongside
the likes of Eden Hazard, Kevin de Bruyne, Thibaut Courtois, Jan Vertonghen and
Romelu Lukaku.
Broos, who won three European trophies with Anderlecht and currently
manages the South African national team, adds: "Vincent was even a little
bit higher than all those guys."
Hamburg helped him learn
humility
After winning the Belgian championship twice in three seasons with
Anderlecht, Kompany was courted by big Premier League clubs including Sir Alex
Ferguson's Manchester United and Jose Mourinho's Chelsea.
However, in 2006, aged 21, he opted instead to join German side Hamburg
for a then club-record fee of about £7m.
He endured a tough start in the Bundesliga, picking up an injury
straight away while the club got into a relegation battle. It was also during
his time in Germany that his mother passed away and sister got cancer.
As the podcast explores, Kompany's mother Jocelyne, who worked as a
trade unionist, was an influential figure, helping to instil the socially
conscious values that he exhibited during his time at City, when he worked with
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to help tackle homelessness.
Kompany has previously said that his
difficult spell at Hamburg taught him to, "stay humble on the way
up".
"That was maybe the best step he ever could make. Discipline. At
that moment, he needed that. That was a good thing," says Broos.
"That changed him a little bit and it was maybe that change that he
needed to become the player he became."
In 11 years at Manchester City between 2008 and 2019, eight of which
were spent as club captain, Kompany won four Premier League titles, two FA Cups
and four League Cups and is widely regarded as one of the top-flight's
best-ever defenders.
"We won the league and went out to the local pub, the Railway in
Hale," says former City team-mate Kyle Walker.
"He's got a pint of Guinness and everyone's following us around. He
stood up and he did a speech. He loves talking. But to do that, and bring not
just the lads together, but the fans who were joining that moment with us, that
was powerful for me."
The road to Munich
After working as head coach at his boyhood club Anderlecht, Kompany
earned plaudits for bringing Burnley back to the Premier League in 2022-23 by
playing an impressive brand of attacking, possession-based football.
During his season in the Premier League, Kompany was one of only two
black managers in the English top flight - alongside Nottingham Forest manager
Nuno Espirito Santo.
Walker remembers his former captain taking his coaching badges and says
it was clear that Kompany was inspired by manager Pep Guardiola.
"You could see that he wanted to do something, taking little bits
and bobs off of Pep," he says.
However, the coach's lack of pragmatism and failure to bend from his
approach even when results were bad was criticised when Burnley were relegated
in their first season back in the top flight.
So how did that lead him to Bayern?
German football journalist Seb Stafford-Bloor says it is over-simplistic
to claim he has, "failed upwards" by taking the job in Munich.
He compares Kompany's appointment to Jurgen Klopp being hired by
Borussia Dortmund in 2008, having led Mainz to relegation from the Bundesliga
the previous season.
Stafford-Bloor believes Kompany was hired partly because he was willing
to accept the reality of the German giants' management structure, unlike
Tuchel, where sporting director Max Eberl oversees transfers.
Following that experience, Stafford-Bloor says the club were looking for
"an employee" who would be comfortable being "the next man in
that chain".
Beyond Kompany's willingness to work within a hierarchy, however,
Stafford-Bloor also believes his stature among younger players at the club was
an important consideration.
"These guys grew up with Vincent Kompany winning Premier League
titles and probably using him on Fifa," he says.
Making history at Bayern
Now, having become the first black manager to work in the Bundesliga,
Kompany is on course to make more history by winning it.
Anti-racism campaigner Townsend says that black managers have to work
"twice as hard" for opportunities, but believes that Kompany has long
been seen as a leader.
"He was spoken about as leadership material a long time before he
went into management," says Townsend. "Vincent was made a captain and
everyone could see the material that came out of him that made him a captain.
"So he gets spoken about with a lot of positives - the leadership,
being able to marshal, words that can take you to the next level.
"I'm not saying Vincent is not talented, because he is a
wonderfully talented man. But a lot of players who played higher up the field -
wide players, forward players, deep 10 positions - are not spoken about in that
way.
"They don't have the same reference as they do with their white
counterparts. I often wonder why. It's often used as 'power and pace', and 'the
fast one'. Negative stereotypes that have existed for such a long time."
Townsend says, however, that Kompany is "dispelling those
myths".
"He has been a trailblazer a lot of his life, a lot of his
career," he adds. "[He} may be a trailblazer for a new breed of black
managers who can take not just the Premier League by storm but Europe by storm.
Being the first in the Bundesliga, that is a massive statement.
"I don't even see a lot of black assistant managers in play at the
moment, right across Europe. So, we are almost galvanised by the potential of
success of the young manager, early in his managerial journey, which will then
pave the way and open doors for others.
"I am sure Vincent would know that, he is a very meticulous guy.
He'll know his heritage and know how important it will be for the next breed of
black and brown managers that he is successful."
Culled: BBC
