Vincent Kompany did it all as a player.
His career was satisfyingly book-ended by spells at Anderlecht and, during an 11-year stint at Manchester City, he became the captain of a team of serial winners, collecting four Premier League titles and 12 in all.
He was part of the Belgium team that came third in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, too.
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Barring the most incredible collapse, he is now three wins away from achieving the first league title of his fledgling managerial career with Championship leaders Burnley.
But what experiences in his life off the pitch have shaped the person he is today?
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In an exclusive interview with former Downing Street director of communications and strategy and Burnley fan Alastair Campbell, Kompany discusses his heritage, the less tolerant climate in his native Belgium, leadership, Pep Guardiola’s influence on his professional mindset and more…
On his dad leaving Congo for a new life in Belgium…
“My dad was a young student in Congo with opinions against the Mobutu regime, which was one of the most bloodthirsty dictatorships in Africa or in the world. He opposed the regime as a student, and students got killed. It came to a point where they got interned in military camps, rather than being put in jail because it would look bad to the international community.
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Image: Kompany's father Pierre left Congo for Belgium amid opposition of the Mobutu regime
“In the end, he found a way out, which was to go to Belgium to family we already had, and that’s where he met my mother. I feel Belgian, but I also feel Congolese.”
On life lessons from his parents…
“My mother was a union leader. In terms of personality, she’s always stood up against injustice and my dad has as well. Leadership has always been a part of their character, but I think it’s just about trying to do the right thing and trying to say what’s right as well.
“We say what we think, but always in a way where we think we can collaborate, so it’s not a case of being the loudest, it’s a case of trying to get the right answer.”
On racial integration in Belgium…
“It’s worse than in England, for sure. But then again, if you take it on a European scale, then they’re not the worst in the class, I think it’s fair to say. I have a white mother and a Black dad, but I grew up as Black because that’s how I was seen and judged.
Image: Kompany with his father Pierre in April 2022
“The biggest thing I noticed from where I grew up is that it’s not necessarily the racism someone might have shouted at you – that’s not something that would have hurt me. What I realised was far more dangerous was the lack of opportunities. Simple things like having to look for apartments under different names because they won’t allow you in for rental, as well as job opportunities and opportunities to get into certain schools. Then you live in this place where you get judged constantly for trying to find a way to make a living.
“My mother was a worker for the unemployment office in Brussels and she was white, blonde, with blue eyes and her first statement to us was ‘Kids, you’re going to have to work twice as hard as anybody else to have the same job’. That was the brutal reality, so when you start with that knowledge, it does give you that extra resilience. But my way of being is never to have resentment, it’s more about fighting – and surely if you work twice as hard, you get twice as good.”
On what it means to be a leader…
“There’s so many ways to be a leader, but I think my type of leadership is to look for the right answer rather than impose my answer. I will have to impose some stuff, but it will be a collection of other people’s thoughts and ideas and experiences and to put it into an environment where it can thrive.
“There are very few ways to become an enemy of mine, but if you’re being deceitful, if you cheat on the work, then you have a big problem with me. If you’re being honest, you can make as many mistakes as you want, you’re coachable, you can be approached, then I think you’re on a path to grow.”
On Pep changing his view of the game…
“He found a language for football that I understood and, from there I could start writing my own story. He made football closer to being objective than it had ever been to me before. That means if you have the right spaces, if you control the right spaces, if you make the right angles, if you attack the right areas that you have a bigger chance of one, hurting opponents and two, diffusing the strengths of your opponents.
“That chess type of approach suited my type of thinking, but I’d never had that before. I had amazing coaches and managers who taught me a lot of things before, but not the strategic side of the game. I think most players get it, that’s the strength of it. Once you’ve experienced it, it’s difficult to think in another way.
“We’re not really talking about style, we’re talking about spaces, actions and reactions. What’s good is that when you do lose 6-0 like we did against Man City, straight away you get thinking about what they did and how we can solve it next time. It gives you a starting point to improve on and it’s a method that’s been important for me.”
On the season far exceeding expectations…
“I don’t think any of us expected it to go this well. The points are one thing, but I think it’s the way we achieved those results as well and the way we established ourselves in the division. I signed a five-year contract, so we knew for sure we had to rebuild; we knew an existing core of the team was leaving, we knew we had to get new players in who would create new values and assets for the club, just to make sure we could be self-sustainable.
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“There was a whole plan for, within two or three years, to make sure we put ourselves in a position where we could give ourselves a chance to get promoted. Things went a little bit quicker than that. The idea was to achieve what we are doing now, but just not in this timescale.”
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