Vincent Kompany

Vincent Jean Mpoy Kompany (born 10 April 1986) is a Belgian professional football manager and former player who played as a centre back and is the current manager of Premier League club Burnley.

He most notably played for Manchester City for eleven seasons, where he was captain for eight of them and became widely regarded as one of the league's greatest centre backs.

He also represented the Belgium national team for 15 years, seven as captain.

In late 2003, Kompany was a target for Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson to cover the long-term suspension of defender Rio Ferdinand.

Ferguson attended Anderlecht's trip to Celtic in the Champions League group stage so that he could watch Kompany, but was instead impressed by Celtic midfielder Liam Miller and signed him.

Additionally, Kompany's mother would not let him transfer until he had finished his education.

Kompany earned 89 caps for Belgium in a fifteen-year international career, having made his debut in 2004 at the age of 17.

Kompany began his professional career at Anderlecht; having graduated from their youth system, he was with the club for three seasons as a first team player before moving to Bundesliga club Hamburg in 2006.

On 9 June 2006, however, it was announced that Kompany had been acquired by Hamburger SV for a fee of €10 million, as a replacement for fellow Belgian Daniel Van Buyten.

In his debut season for Hamburg, he managed only six Bundesliga starts for the club before suffering an achilles injury in November that ruled him out for the rest of the season.

Despite his lack of involvement in the season, he was selected in a 30-man provisional squad for the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.

Kompany scored on 29 July 2007 in a 4–0 win (5–1 aggregate) over Moldova's Dacia Chișinău in the last round of the UEFA Intertoto Cup.

Hamburg won the title via being the Intertoto team that advanced furthest in the 2007–08 UEFA Cup.

In the summer of 2008, he completed a transfer to Premier League club Manchester City, where he established himself as an integral part of the squad and was regarded as one of the bargain buys of the revolutionised City era, blossoming into one of the league's best centre backs.

He was part of their squad that came fourth at the 2008 Olympics as well as going to the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and 2018, coming a best-ever third at the latter.

On 22 August 2008, Premier League club Manchester City signed Kompany from Hamburg on a four-year contract for an undisclosed fee.

He made his debut two days later in a 3–0 home win against West Ham United, playing the entire match.

On 28 September, Kompany scored his first goal in City's 2–1 away defeat by Wigan Athletic.

During his early time at Manchester City, Kompany played as a defensive midfielder.

On 19 October 2009, Kompany signed a new five-year deal with City that would keep him at the club until 2014.

He scored his second league goal for the club in a 2–0 home win against Portsmouth and his third in a 6–1 win against Burnley at Turf Moor.

He served as captain from 2010.

Kompany was handed the number 4 jersey for the 2010–11 season after previous wearer Nedum Onuoha moved on loan to Sunderland.

On 25 April, Kompany again continued to captain the side in the absence of striker Carlos Tevez against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park, playing the full 90 minutes alongside Lescott in a 1–0 victory.

On 16 April, Kompany captained Manchester City's victory over main rivals Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley; City won the game 1–0.

Later that day, he was named in the PFA Team of the Year alongside teammate Tevez.

At the end of the 2010–11 season, in which City qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time, manager Roberto Mancini praised Kompany as "incredible", and called him one of the top defenders in Europe, with the potential to be number one in the world.

He finished the season winning the club's Supporter's Player of the Year and Player's Player of the Year awards, clocking up 50 appearances in all competitions including 37 Premier League starts.

In the 2011–12 season, he was awarded the captaincy of City, leading his club to win the Premier League that season, their first league title in 44 years.

Kompany was included in the Premier League Team of the Year for two years in a row in 2011 and 2012 as well as being included in the 2014 team, and won the Premier League Player of the Season in 2012.

Kompany went on to win 11 more trophies at City and made 360 appearances.

In the 2011 FA Cup Final, Kompany started and finished the match, a 1–0 victory over Stoke City, which delivered Manchester City's first major trophy for 35 years.

Kompany was firmly installed as club captain for the 2011–12 season, with Tevez having expressed publicly his desire to leave the club.

In 2019, when his contract expired after eleven years at City, Kompany returned to Anderlecht as player-manager.

A year later, he announced his retirement from professional football and became the first-team manager.

In 2022, he was hired by Burnley, winning the EFL Championship in his first season.

Born in Uccle, Brussels, Kompany started his career at Anderlecht at the age of 17, winning several awards including the Belgian Golden Shoe and the Belgian Ebony Shoe.

Although several top European sides immediately showed interest, the player and his entourage decided to first develop a few more years at Anderlecht.

"Don't you worry, I will stay here," he told Berend Scholten at UEFA.com.

"At the moment The Zeros in my contract are not so important. If I wanted to leave, I would have been gone already."