‘Habe die Ehre (I'm honoured)’, ‘Servus’, ‘Mia san mia’ - Vincent Kompany has settled into Bavarian life after just one week at FC Bayern. "Every day I learn something about FC Bayern, the players, Munich and the region. Bavaria is a very special region in Europe,’ says the new head coach, “there aren't many regions that are so proud of their culture.”
He wants to immerse himself even more deeply in them, just as he wants to immerse himself in the German language. He held his first press conference of the season predominantly in German at the start of FC Bayern's three-day training camp at the Tegernsee. But the former world-class defender also wants to get to know his squad even better, which is why he tries to speak to his players as much as possible: "I'm lucky to be able to work with top players, to mould them into a strong team. I also used to play with top players. You always think that everyone is satisfied at this level - that's not true. I have the feeling that they all want to get even better. That's why the work is so enjoyable."
Kompany recalls FC Bayern's great history
The new boss readily answered the media representatives' many questions - but also drew a clear line: “It's about the future, I don't want to talk about the past.” Because, as he also learned during his visit to the FC Bayern Museum last week, ‘FC Bayern have always been successful because their great players such as Uli Hoeneß, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Franz Beckenbauer would never have said after achieving success: "That's enough now, we've had enough! Instead, they always kept going, set themselves new goals and achieved them."
According to Kompany, they can be very proud of this past: ‘But we are successful when we think about the future.’ The new coach also believes that ‘Mia san Mia’ stands for this: ‘It's not my intention to talk about individual players. We want to be successful as a collective." For once, a detail from the past actually helps: ‘Players like the ones we have will always show a reaction. We don't need to make any big speeches. It's important for me that we show that we're up for it."
Trip up the Wallberg
Kompany, who was born and grew up in flat Belgium, has learned that sometimes even small mountains are difficult to climb: ‘I've already experienced the mountains in Bavaria, I've been up the Wallberg.’ As a team-building measure, the coaching staff hiked up the 1722 metres on Sunday - the reward for the strenuous mountain tour was a magnificent view over the Tegernsee valley. After a stormy night in a mountain lodge, the team descended from the Wallberg on Monday morning. Just in time to prepare the team at the Tegernsee for what will be an exhausting season. The first friendly - still without the European Championship participants - will take place on Wednesday against Rottach-Egern (live and exclusively on fcbayern.com). By then, Vincent Kompany will have settled in a good deal more in Bavaria."
Read the other key statements from the FC Bayern head coach's press conference here:
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