Bayern Munich, Vincent Kompany Agree to Contract to Replace Thomas Tuchel as Manager
Scott Polacek@@ScottPolacek
Featured Columnist IVMay 29, 2024
Vincent Kompany is officially the manager of Bayern Munich.
The club announced Wednesday that it agreed to a deal with Kompany that will make him the head coach through June 2027. Kompany arrives after a stint as the head coach of the English Premier League club FC Burnley and will replace Thomas Tuchel after he and Bayern Munich parted ways.
FC Bayern München @FCBayernVertrag bis 2027: Vincent Kompany neuer Trainer des FC Bayern. 🔴⚪<br><br>🔗 <a href="https://t.co/RvWniZuMxF">https://t.co/RvWniZuMxF</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MiaSanMia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MiaSanMia</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FCBayern?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FCBayern</a> <a href="https://t.co/ae5cO0ud6X">pic.twitter.com/ae5cO0ud6X</a>
"I'm looking forward to the challenge of FC Bayern," Kompany said.
"It's a great honour to be able to work for this club—FC Bayern is an institution in international football. As a coach, you have to stand for what you are as a character: I love having the ball, being creative—but we also have to be aggressive and courageous on the pitch. I'm now looking forward to the basics: working with the players, building a team. Once the basis is right, success will follow."
Despite becoming the coach of one of the sport's most well-known teams, Kompany is still best known for his playing career. That career started in 2003 with Anderlecht and included stops with Hamburger SV, Man City and Anderlecht.
He won the Belgian championship twice with Anderlecht, but it was his 11 years with Man City that stand out the most.
Kompany was named to the Premier League Hall of Fame in 2022 after he won the English Premier League and the EFL Cup four times. He also won the FA Cup and Community Shield twice.
The defensive specialist played for the Belgian national team as well and participated in the 2014 and 2018 World Cups. He helped lead his side to a third-place finish in 2018.
His time with Burnley was brief and was something of a roller coaster. He took over ahead of the 2022-23 campaign and led the team to promotion into the Premier League in his first season thanks to a first-place finish in the Championship.
However, the team finished in 19th place with five wins, nine draws and 24 losses in the Premier League during the manager's second season at the helm and was relegated back to the Championship.
Kompany still showed enough to Bayern Munich to convince the club to hire him as the next manager following the split with Tuchel. It was revealed in February that Tuchel was leaving as head coach a year earlier than his contract end date of June 2025.
Bayern Munich finished this past season in third place in the Bundesliga, which ended a streak of 11 consecutive first-place finishes. They were also eliminated in the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League by Real Madrid.
