Vincent Kompany: Bayern Munich's coach with a cause

DW News · Feb 27, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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A win over Borussia Dortmund on Saturday would send Vincent Kompany’s Bayern Munich 11 points clear of their opponents and all but seal back-to-back Bundesliga titles for the Belgian coach. While the football is his focus, Kompany’s powerful, forthright and eloquent monologue on racism and victim blaming last week struck a chord beyond the game. The 39-year-old condemned Benfica coach Jose Mourinho for his suggestion that the alleged racist abuse by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni that compelled Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jnr. to walk off the pitch was provoked by Vinicius’s celebration of a goal. Kompany then went on to share his own experiences of racist abuse as both player and coach. "I go to Club Brugge [while coaching Belgian side Anderlecht in 2021]. And I played for the national team; I was the captain for the national team. Me, my staff, we get called brown monkeys and so on. And after I complain, I see how all of these politics happen again to kill the story. So, no consequences, no nothing. And I have a voice. What do you think for the people without a voice?" 'Where I come from is my dad' Kompany’s decision to use that voice to speak out has its roots in his parents and upbringing. "I come from Brussels, and we speak so many different languages. Just in Brussels alone, you could be speaking French, Dutch, maybe a little bit of Arabic or Lingala from Congo, Italian, Spanish, it's all mixed," he told UEFA in 2024. "And you find that unless you communicate with people, nobody will do what you want them to do, and that's a big part of what we learn. I take it with me when I communicate with the group [of players]." While a multicultural city helped Kompany develop his sense of social justice and awareness of discrimination, such notions also come from his father. "Where I come from is my dad," he once said. "His experiences give me strength."Vincent Kompany won 89 caps for Belgium, finishing third at the 2018 World CupImage: Reuters/T. Hanai Pierre Kompany fled what was then the Belgian Congo (now DR Congo) in 1975 as a political refugee after serving 13 months in jail for his involvement in a student protest against the ruling regime. He was elected to the Brussels’ parliament in 2014 and became the country’s first Black mayor four years later. Racism a part of Kompany's childhood As a young man, Pierre married Vincent’s mother, Jocelyne, a white Belgian who died in 2008, something that shaped his own politics. "My dad wasn’t accepted in the family at the beginning," explained Vincent in a 2019 Guardian interview. "My mother comes from the most rural village you can imagine and when she arrived, in the 70s, with my dad, straight from Africa, it was a shock. It was ignorance. My dad always ended up being accepted because of his personality. It was normal for us to go to youth tournaments and be called monkeys; parents shouting it. That would nearly cause a fist fight with my mother. We were taught to be stronger." That family trait of standing up for their rights and beliefs is something that has been a feature of Kompany’s career. After leaving Belgian giants Anderlecht for a two-year spell as a player in Hamburg, he became the on-field leader of a routinely successful Manchester City side, winning four Premier League titles. Kompany gained admirers both within and outside City, before returning to Anderlecht to take his first steps in coaching.With a little help from my friends His upbringing is even reflected in his choice of coaching staff. Childhood friend, Rodyse Munienge, is on the staff at Bayern. Floribert N'Galula, who also came through Anderlecht’s academy and played professionally in Belgium, has follwed Kompany to Anderlecht, Burnley and is now with him at Bayern Munich. Kompany was not Bayern’s first choice for the coaching role in 2024, having overseen Burnley’s relegation from the Premier League but has been a success so far. Bayern have lost just three league games since the start of last season and are on course for a league and cup double with a first Champions League title — the only thing that appears to offer any Bayern coach more job security — since 2020 very much a possibility. After Vinicius and his teammates got the better of Benfica in their Champions League playoff on Wednesday, Real Madrid could meet Bayern at the quarterfinal stage. Among the hype such a fixture would produce would be two men, in Kompany and Vinicius, prepared to make a stand against racism regardless of the personal cost. Edited by: Jonathan Harding