Former Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany has retired as a player to become manager of Anderlecht on a four-year deal.
The four-time Premier League champion joined the Belgian side in a player-manager role in May 2019 and moved into a new position as co-manager to Franky Vercauteren, but has now announced his retirement as a player.
The four-time Premier League champion joined the Belgian side in a player-manager role in May 2019 and moved into a new position as co-manager to Franky Vercauteren, but has now announced his retirement as a player.
Kompany, 34, left City at the end of the 2018/19 season after making 360 appearances across all competitions in order to return to his boyhood club.
Vincent Kompany is seen as a father figure by the young Anderlecht players
Arriving from Hamburg in 2008 for a fee of around £6m, Kompany went on to win four top-flight titles as well as two FA Cups, four League Cups and two Community Shields in 11 years – becoming a City legend in the process.
In an exclusive sit-down with Sky Sports in 2019, Manchester City legend Vincent Kompany looked back on 11 glittering years at the Etihad Stadium…
The early years-
“Going through the transition with City, and missing out on all these titles in the first years, and then hardship in terms of expectations, failing, expectations, failing, and then carrying on. When I look back on this, it’s better doing it this way, for me anyway.
“I know I played a role in shaping the culture of the club, and probably the future of the club, and that means a lot. There aren’t many clubs where you can do it like this. It was a special journey.
“The owners came in, andk they were owners who give you time to build, the perfect type of owners for the club. So many come in and say they’re going to pile money in, be successful, but never achieve it. That ownership group came in and said they were going to build a plan and vision, and can anyone doubt they did that?
“Not everything was bad when I arrived, we had to change some of the players to become a winning team, but it was a great club with a fantastic history, and I think that’s the thing I tried to keep sharing.”
Vincent Kompany left Manchester City at the end of 2018/19
“I could have ended up at another club, and out of four league titles you could have maybe turned it into eight, depending on which club you go to, and how successful it is.
“It’s a competitive club, City. It’s not like you can sit down for a year and wait around for what happens. Every transfer window, every six months, you are competing with the rest of the world. Anyone better in the world, they have the responsibility to get to improve the team, and so nobody gives you the gift of staying at City for 11 years, you have to earn it for 11 years.
“Doing this, while being impeded by your body, my mother would have been proud of me.”
Becoming a Manc
“I became a Manc by the end of it. All of these core values I had before I was a Manc, so when I just signed, I kind of transported them through the years. By the end of it I still think there is a strong identity of Manchester that remains in someone who never came from Manchester.
“If someone gets a knock on the pitch, you just get up, get on with it. You’re in Manchester. It doesn’t matter whether you are a beautiful, £100m player, because you’re in Manchester you’re going to get up, and get on with it. That’s the side of Manchester I tried to keep throughout, and I think the group was shaped a bit like this because of myself and others.
“I mean, Carla [Kompany’s wife] and her family are massive blues. There’s the odd red, who still gets in at Christmas! But I got myself in a place where it always meant a lot for me, more than at anywhere else.”
Accolades poured in for Vincent Kompany from all players, retired and active around the world. He was truly a legend of the sport.
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