New FC Bayern coach Vincent Kompany: Here to stay

Vincent Kompany is in the middle of his first pre-season with FC Bayern. It's not just on the training pitch that you see the new head coach bristling with energy; the Belgian is immersing himself in his new club and soaking up the "Mia san mia" mentality everywhere he goes.

The new FC Bayern coach

These days, a new coach always means new lines on the training pitch. Louis van Gaal, Jupp Heynckes, Pep Guardiola... The Bayern coaches of the last 15 years all had different zones marked out on the pitch, sometimes with larger, sometimes with smaller squares. Most recently, Thomas Tuchel had the pitch tapered towards the two goals like a diamond. With Vincent Kompany, this shape is now even more acute. Dotted lines lead diagonally from each outer corner of the penalty area across the nearest corner of the six-yard box into the goal. Viewed from above, the lines in each penalty area form a V. V for Vincent.

At the beginning of July, five days before the official start of pre-season, Kompany was already there. Not only in the form of dotted lines on the pitch, he also stepped onto the pitch in person for the first time as Bayern's head coach. The training pitch has always been at the epicentre of his career, first as a player and now as a coach. "Football is work," he likes to say, "a lot of work." It might still have been during the holidays, but a handful of players were already there, such as Eric Dier, Raphaël Guerreiro and Sacha Boey. They completed their first training session of the new season. Kompany observed them. He wanted to develop "a feeling" for his players, he said. Having a feeling is important to him, he would go on to talk about it time and again in his first few weeks. Feeling is the foundation for his work. First gut, then brain, that's how it works. And the end result should be the kind of football that whets the appetite - mouth-watering, with flair and goals. And that from a coach who, as a player, had the job of destroying the opposition's attacks. "I used to be a defender, but my passion is teams that want to score goals at every opportunity," he said, describing his playing philosophy at Burnley, his last coaching position. He added: "It doesn't matter whether the opposition have a throw-in or a corner kick - we clear the ball and score a goal at the other end." The lines on the pitch dictate the direction.

New sounds in training

You can hear that something new has begun at FC Bayern. There's music playing while the players stretch, feel-good beats liven up the dull warm-up. And then you can hear Kompany. "Be aggressive, lads!" he calls. Or: "Bang, bang, bang, bang! As few touches as possible!" Sometimes in English, sometimes in German, sometimes in French, depending on who he's addressing. As a Belgian who's played in Germany and England, he's very versatile. It's not the language that matters anyway, but the tone. Kompany's voice booms out over the training pitch, it makes the football he wants to see audible: dominant, courageous, attack-minded.

The work on the pitch is the most important thing for every head coach. That's where the focus lies. But in his first few days at FC Bayern, Kompany did something that no new coach had ever done before: he visited the club museum. The other visitors were amazed when they recognised the tall figure. Kompany doesn't mind posing for a few selfies, but he wasn't there to be the centre of attention himself. During the hour-long tour, he listened attentively and asked lots of questions. The founding of the club, the first German championship, Kurt Landauer, the "golden" 70s, the treble, the coaches, the jerseys, the women's team... The 38-year-old stopped at a model of the Olympiastadion and recalled that he played there himself, with Anderlecht in the Champions League in December 2003, when Bayern won 1-0. "It was cold and windy," he recalled. The Olympiastadion was nice to look at, but it wasn't nice to play football in. Anyone who ever watched a game under the canvas roof in the wind, frost and rain will understand him.

Over the course of his long playing career, Kompany repeatedly crossed paths with FC Bayern. As a defender, he played against the German record champions nine times, so the club is no stranger to the Belgian. Nevertheless, he wanted to know more. "I want to get a feel for Bayern," he says. And so it made sense to start at the museum, at its roots. "The museum explains why the club is the way it is," he said. He's particularly interested in the club's great personalities and listed them: Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Sepp Maier, Uli Hoeneß, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. All the great players have one thing in common, he said: "That they never said 'That's enough now.' Never. After winning a title, they always wanted the next one. And when they lost, they kept going. The history of FC Bayern shows: it's all about hard work, about never letting up."

Kompany liked what he saw in the museum. A lot of it reminded him of his home club, he says. He joined Belgian record champions Anderlecht at the age of six, where it was drummed into him for 14 years that it's all about winning. Anderlecht's long-serving president Constant Vanden Stock was as influential a club figure as Uli Hoeneß at FC Bayern. And there's another parallel: does he know the story of "Katsche" Schwarzenbeck? Vincent Kompany ponders. "That was Beckenbauer's strong defender." Exactly. And he had a moment of glory in the 1974 European Cup final, coincidentally in Brussels. In the last minute of extra time, he scored the crucial equaliser against Atlético Madrid. With a long-range thunderbolt from 20, 25 metres, although he wasn't actually supposed to shoot at goal. Kompany has to laugh. "I know what you're getting at."

Kompany's story

In 2019, he paved the way for Manchester City to win the Premier League with a long-range effort against Leicester - despite teammate Sergio Agüero screaming at him: "Don't shoot! No, Vinnie, no!" Kompany didn't listen and hammered the ball into the top corner from 25 metres. City won 1-0, defended their lead at the top of the table and celebrated the title a week later. "Stories like this show: If you feel you have to do something, then you have to have the courage to do it," he says. "And another thing: it's not just the big names in a team that are important for success. Everyone is important. If you want to achieve something, you can only do it together."

On the Wallberg

At the start of his second week of training, Kompany was sitting with his assistants in the centre circle on the football pitch in Rottach. Training had just finished and the group were chatting in a relaxed atmosphere. Behind them loomed the Wallberg, a majestic sight, the summit just disappearing behind the clouds. Exactly 20 years ago, Felix Magath hiked up the mountain with his players - Kompany also made it to the top. He hiked up to the summit cross at 1,722 metres with his coaching staff. The group spent the night in a cabin, complete with a night of thunderstorms in the Bavarian Alps, and were back in the valley at Tegernsee in time for the start of the training camp the next day. "They told me it's a small mountain - it's not a small mountain," groaned the Belgian. He comes from the city after all. "Everything is flat in Brussels." The hike up was okay, but the climb down ... "When you've been a professional player for 20 years, you feel it in everything, in your hips, in your knees," he said, laughing.

The city dweller from the lowlands didn't take it easy on himself. Despite heavy legs, he demanded full commitment in training, both from himself and his team. Kompany is an active coach. In Rottach, he coached his players as they practised the correct pressing tactics. Who should run at which opponent and when? Kompany gave clear instructions. Later, he had the players practise defending the penalty area while outnumbered. The coach became Eric Dier's shadow, running behind him, sometimes grabbing his upper body with both hands and guiding him. At some point, the attackers managed to score a goal. Dier and Kompany were one step too late and were unable to block a shot from Minjae Kim. "Minjae!" shouted an annoyed Kompany, jostling the Korean. The two looked at each other and grinned.

It's an exciting mix that we see under Vincent Kompany. Work and fun, his tone sometimes loud, sometimes soft. The coach knows what he wants, while at the same time discovering many new things. Saying "Servus" has long since come naturally to him. "There aren't many regions in Europe that are so proud of their tradition and identity," he says. Whether as a country or a club - Bavaria is something special. Kompany feels that.

© Photos: Julian Baumann

This text was taken from the current issue of the FC Bayern club magazine "51". It appeared here in a slightly abridged version.