Bayern Munich board member for sport Max Eberl told the club's members' magazine 51 that Vincent Kompany had impressed him from the start of the selection process. In the end, Eberl found the decision an easy one.
"Of course, we worked through a list of candidates. Julian Nagelsmann was a candidate; that's no secret. I had a very good rapport with him, but he chose the DFB. Ralf Rangnick also decided to go in a different direction. We analysed the market very closely at the time – and everything we heard about the young Burnley coach was positive. At some point I said: 'I'll just give Vinnie a call now,'" Eberl revealed.
A phone call before Bayern Munich's Champions League semi-final in Madrid convinced Eberl that he and Kompany saw eye to eye. "We spoke on the phone before our Champions League semi-final in Madrid. After four hours, I had to say: 'Sorry, it's 6pm, I have to go to a meeting.' I hung up and thought: Wow, that feels good! He's the real deal." Sporting director Christoph Freund gave similar feedback: "He came back and was convinced too."
At the time, Kompany was under contract with Burnley FC. He had taken the club up to the Premier League, only for them to go straight back down the following year. Appointing the Belgian carried a risk.
"If I had proposed Vincent Kompany as my very first choice, I don't know what the reaction would have been. The manager of relegated Burnley as Thomas Tuchel's successor?" Eberl said.
Getty ImagesHow did Max Eberl convince Vincent Kompany to move to Bayern Munich?
Bayern Munich, though, believed the 40-year-old could handle the job at Säbener Straße. "You could have looked at it and thought: He can't make it work; he can't adapt. But we saw it differently. He has a clear football philosophy. He didn't want to sit back with eight men in defence and hope for a point against Manchester City and Liverpool, who compete in the Premier League with their squads worth billions of euros. He wanted to win games, and I saw that as a positive."
Pep Guardiola had also spoken only positively about Kompany. After a phone call between the Spaniard and club grandees Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Uli Hoeneß, the decision was clear: "Okay, let's do it!"
To settle everything, Eberl and Freund flew to Manchester for a final conversation: "At three in the morning, Vinnie said: 'Okay, I want to sleep on it and speak to my wife.' I lay down on his sofa. He asked: 'What are you doing there?' I said: 'Uli told me I'm not allowed to leave your house until you've signed.' He then said: 'Yes, Max, I'll do it. But I have to speak to my wife first.' In the end, he did still manage to push me out of the door," Eberl said.
Since summer 2024, Kompany has been Bayern Munich's head coach. Under the Belgian, the German record champions have so far won two German league titles, two DFL Supercups and one DFB Cup.