Only a few weeks ago, Vincent Kompany was still keen to present Min-Jae Kim in the best possible light in public. The South Korean was still seen as a potential sale candidate at the time. He had carried that label since Jonathan Tah arrived last summer, and it only stuck harder after last season, when Kim spent most of the big games on the bench.
Kim, according to the countless reports at the time, could leave Bayern Munich if a suitable offer arrived. Munich and the centre-back himself were also said to have received some very specific enquiries, with varying degrees of seriousness. But it was Kim in particular who allegedly turned down one interested club after another, such as Manchester United, Aston Villa and Arsenal.
Bayern are now benefiting massively from that decision. In the first two competitive games of the season, the South Korean unexpectedly started once for Dayot Upamecano and once for Tah. He impressed in both the Supercup against Borussia Dortmund and the 5-1 demolition of VfB Stuttgart at the start of the Bundesliga campaign.
"It is simply the constellation we have with Jona, with Upa and with Min-Jae," enthused board member for sport Max Eberl after Friday's match. "Now there are three clear centre-backs, all three world-class, you simply have to say that. I think quite a few clubs are envious of us for the quality of these three players."
Vincent Kompany enthuses about Kim at Bayern Munich: "In every situation he reacted correctly"
That did not come as any surprise to Kompany. Even a few weeks ago, when he made a clear plea for Bayern's nominal number three centre-back, it was obvious how highly the record champions' coach rates Kim, and that he does not see the hierarchy in Munich's central defence anywhere near as clearly as the press do.
When Munich stopped in Kim's home country at the start of August on their Asia tour, he positively raved about the player many saw as second choice. "Don't state everything so absolutely," Kompany told the travelling reporters when asked about Kim's supposedly renewed threat of a permanent substitute role: "We are talking here about competition that I like. The most important thing is to prove yourself on the pitch. In that respect, I want to pay Min-Jae a compliment. No matter what happens, he stays focused and lets his actions do the talking on the pitch."
Kompany said that during last season, when Kim was only given a bigger role in the final weeks of the already decided Bundesliga campaign, he had often wanted to speak to the 29-year-old but kept changing his mind. "I had many situations in which I thought: maybe now is the right moment to speak with Min-Jae," Kompany said. "Sometimes I spoke with him, sometimes I left him alone. In every situation he reacted correctly and gave everything in training and on the pitch."
GettyMin-Jae Kim enjoys high standing at Bayern Munich: "Great character"
Bayern are now reaping the rewards of Kompany's squad management and Kim's calm, highly professional handling of the situation. The upcoming season is, as is well known, only due to end as planned on 5 June 2027 in Madrid. A long stretch of strain lies ahead for the Munich players, and that comes after an extremely short summer break because of the World Cup, which Upamecano in particular is likely still feeling in his legs. Kompany was right to rest the World Cup semi-finalist against Borussia Dortmund in the Supercup.
All of which makes Kim's decision to stay look even more important. Bayern kept an absolutely reliable alternative this summer. Or put another way, the club got lucky that the former "monster" from Napoli chose not to leave and instead fight for his place in Munich. A sale would admittedly have brought in another hefty fee, but Bayern would also have lost an important squad player who is already helping them manage workloads at the start of the season without concern.
Kim also enjoys an extremely high standing within the squad, despite assumptions to the contrary based on his shy manner. "A great character, everyone in the team likes him," Serge Gnabry, for example, said a few months ago about Kim, who appears in public only very rarely.
Kompany, too, recently pointed out that the South Korean is actually one of the dressing room's livelier characters. "People don't even know that he also has an incredible sense of humour," the Belgian said. "It's really true. Whenever a player is standing next to Min-Jae, he starts laughing. That is perhaps the side of him that people don't know."
Getty ImagesMin-Jae Kim at Bayern Munich: Error-prone instead of "monster"
On the pitch, though, the image attached to Kim since his 2023 arrival in Munich was at times, and then more and more often, far less flattering.
In the 2023/24 season, he made two mistakes in the first leg of the semi-final against Real Madrid, which even the then coach Thomas Tuchel publicly criticised and subsequently dropped Kim in favour of Matthijs de Ligt and Eric Dier.
Error-prone instead of "monster", critics scoffed, especially after his poor displays against Inter Milan in the Champions League quarter-final matches, where he was at least involved in three of the four goals conceded. In all that, one detail was forgotten: by that point, Kim was one of the most overworked players in the world because of his long trips with the national team and the general schedule. FIFPro even publicly raised the alarm over him and warned of long-term health damage for the South Korean, who had been dragging himself through the rest of the season with persistent Achilles tendon problems from the winter onwards.
Min-Jae Kim is content with backup role at Bayern Munich
That history may also explain why Kim seemed anything but unhappy when Bayern signed Tah on a free transfer last summer and moved him above him in the pecking order. Tah immediately became a regular starter and even part of the leadership group. Kim, by contrast, has since been warming the bench.
"I had never experienced a long spell in which I wasn't playing, so it was a bit difficult at first. But over time I realised that it also has a positive side," he told the Korean outlet Footballist in mid-April. "I always thought that playing constantly was the solution, but now I am satisfied with my situation as a challenger."
Then in August, after Kompany had lavished praise on him, he said much the same again. "I am very happy to be able to measure myself against Jonathan Tah and Dayot Upamecano," he said then. "At Bayern Munich there is strong competition every season. But we also get on well with each other. And we exchange a lot, so I am very satisfied. I can learn a lot from them."
Dayot Upamecano could serve as a role model for Kim at Bayern Munich
Upamecano may at least offer him a role model. The Frenchman, too, initially carried a dubious reputation after his move from RB Leipzig, as a rash defender or even "Calamity Upa", as Bild christened him after his legendary horror show against Borussia Mönchengladbach in the DFB Cup in the historic 5-0 hammering.
Time and again, sometimes in hair-raising fashion, errors that led to goals crept into the game of the hugely talented centre-back. He has now almost completely cut them out. Upamecano is regarded as one of the best centre-backs in the world. That may perhaps not apply to Kim, but this summer the South Korean has clearly shown more of the "monster" from Italy again, the one Bayern once deemed worth a fee of 50 million euros.
Getty ImagesMin-Jae Kim is Bayern Munich's secret summer winner
The first two competitive games of the season suggest Kim has, for now at least, shaken off that error-prone reputation. Against Borussia Dortmund, he turned in a thoroughly solid display and was even better than Tah alongside him. Against VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga opener, he also refused to let an early misunderstanding with Joshua Kimmich knock him out of rhythm.
Both the South Korean and the over-eager Germany captain attacked the same header, and Kimmich inadvertently flicked it into the path of Dzenan Pejcinovic, but Upamecano cleared. Kim then backed up the good impressions from pre-season with a number of clever flat passes in the build-up, plenty of dynamism in running duels and real conviction in challenges on the ground and in the air.
Kim looks to be in peak condition at the start of the season. He may indeed be benefiting from the fact he spent "only" 2,051 minutes on the pitch last season instead of the 3593 the year before, and some of those had come while he was badly hampered, while Tah and Upamecano often got the nod instead. The spell as the clear number three at centre-back seems to have done him good, physically above all but mentally too.
For Kompany and Bayern, that is a blessing. Even if, despite Kim's remarkable progress, it still seems very unlikely at present that a serious battle for places will break out in central defence and that the Belgian will split up the established Upamecano-Tah pairing in the biggest games of the season. But: you should, after all, "not state everything so absolutely".
Min-Jae Kim: Statistics and performance data at Bayern Munich
Season | Matches | Goals | Assists | Minutes played |
2026/27 | 2 | - | - | 174 |
2025/26 | 37 | 1 | 1 | 2.051 |
2024/25 | 43 | 3 | - | 3.593 |
2023/24 | 36 | 1 | 2 | 2.765 |