In an exclusive interview with Guardian reporter Deborah Linton, Belgian star Kompany, who has announced his departure from Manchester City, told reporters about his childhood, his outlook for life after retirement and the "crazy" Trump...
One morning in March, I braved the drizzle of early spring to the electronic door in front of The Kompani apartment. Manchester is expanding to make the once-tree-lined Cheshire part of it, and the luxury cars parked on the streets seem to be trying to tell us: "You've come to the rich". Kompany opened the door to me, wearing a black T-shirt and jeans, and a towel hanging around his neck—presumably just after a workout. At this time, Manchester City is experiencing a severe test of multi-line combat, but As the captain of the "Blue Moon", Kompany has just returned from injury, and the Belgian Iron Guard, who was forced to suspend for 6 weeks due to a calf injury, still needs to try to find competitive form. "I didn't feel very well this morning, so I just did extra work at the gym for a while," Kompany told reporters in English with a Belgian accent.
At 1.94 meters tall, with muscular but gentlemanly demeanor, Kompany gives the intuitive impression of "safety" rather than "horror". He led the author into the parlor of his home and squeezed out a glass of green juice with a strange little machine. "Sometimes, I'll squeeze a glass of raspberry juice to treat myself," he says. On the wall of his house hung a tactical whiteboard used by coaches. At the top of the shelves are neatly arranged the various trophies he won as a player; the lower level of the shelves displays books, including autobiographies of Mandela, Gandhi, Obama and others; several books about the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (where Kompany's father Pierre was born); and the autobiography of Sir Alex Ferguson and his club teammate Aguero.
The 33-year-old Is not only an experienced Premier League player, but also an erudite and avid public figure involved in social good. He has been with Manchester City for 11 seasons and came just a month before this interview when he followed the team to win his seventh major trophy in Manchester – the League Cup in 2018-19, with City beating Brighton 4-1 in the final at Wembley Stadium. And two months later, the number of trophies he has won will grow to 9 (excluding Community Shield). In the penultimate round of the league against Leicester City, seeing that the 0-0 deadlock could not be broken, Kompany decisively entered the heart of the opponent and drew an unstoppable world wave 30 yards from the goal. It turned out to be a "golden goal" enough to shape the premier league title this season. And that goal also showed one of The great qualities of Kompany – being pressure-resistant – and all of City's players and coaches sighed in despair when they saw him trying to pull his foot out of the box. And when the ball came into the net, Sky Sports' guest of honor, former England international Gary Neville, began to exaggerate: "Vincent Kompany, where do you want them to put your statue?" ”
Kompany is a versatile professional player. The Belgian used his spare time to earn a master's degree in international business administration in 2017, and this experience turned into a crowded scene in Manchester City's dressing room. He told me with a smile: "As soon as they find out that I am studying, they will throw their sneakers at me." At the same time, he was a good stay-at-home man – he had three children with Carla, a man from Manchester. His home is very elegantly furnished, which is very different from the villa that most professional players overly luxurious. Last summer, to celebrate City's league triumph, Kompany and all his teammates went to a famous local nightclub. His declaration of victory at the scene was later posted on social networking sites, when Kompany said: "If there are children in this room, please plug their ears... It's been a long journey for TMD. ”
At the same time, Kompany is a "weirdo" who strictly adheres to various schedules. He sets schedules for training, travel, competitions, and attendance at sponsor events and enforces them strictly. It was because he was always in a "busy" state that the interview was delayed for weeks before it was confirmed.
He is also keen to use his influence to organize social events. The charity foundation, Tackle4MCR, which he spearheads, plans to raise around £1 million for homeless people in Manchester this autumn. The vast majority of the money will come from the "Khompani Memorial Match" scheduled for 11 September 2019 – Kompany's contract with Manchester City expires this summer, and as the players have now confirmed that they will not renew their contracts with the club, the match at the Etihad Stadium will also be Kompany's farewell battle at Manchester City.
In recent seasons, injuries have become the biggest enemy of the Belgian's career. The current Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, has praised Vincent Vincent "is still the best defender in football today", but he also admits that based on the health of the players over the past year, he is not sure whether Kompany will play for Manchester City in the future. Isn't Kompany afraid that one day he will retire due to injury? He confessed: "I'm only focusing on the current training tasks now, I don't think about it that much. When I was very young, I started to hang out with injuries. I used to worry about this kind of problem, but now that my playing career has lasted for 15 years, there is no need to be afraid of this kind of thing anymore. There is probably no player in the football world who is as well prepared for his retirement life as I am. ”
Indeed it is. So after City won the "Treble" of domestic competitions this summer, Kompany decided to leave the club where he had been playing for 11 seasons and chose to return to Anderlecht as a special player and coach.
Kompany and Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola saluted the audience
On April 10, 1986, Kompany was born into a poor family in Brussels, Belgium. However, this family attaches great importance to the education of its family members. His father, Pierre Kompany, was from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was thrown into concentration camps against dictator Mboto. After coming to Belgium as a refugee, Pierre obtained a degree as an engineer and was later elected as the first black mayor in Belgian history. To support the family's three children, Pierre worked as a night taxi driver. Kompani's mother, a white man named Jocelyn, was both a civil servant in the government and an activist in trade union organizations. Sadly, she died of cancer in 2008.
The Kompani family realized early on that mixed-race children often experience all kinds of discrimination in society. So they taught the children how to deal with the challenge. For example, they speak French at home and Dutch at school – Brussels is a diverse city, and mastering one more language means opening one more door. Later, Vincent also mastered German and English, and his Italian and Spanish were still "so-so". "I owe my parents a lot of things," he told me. "From the moment I was born, we saw a wider world from our own little house."
Did his father suffer racial discrimination? "In the beginning, my father didn't get the approval of [my mother's] family at all. My mother came from one of the most remote villages, and you can imagine what it was like when she brought home my father, a black man who had just come out of Africa, in the 1970s. This caused an earthquake in the village. That's a sign of ignorance. In the end, my father impressed them with his character. ”
"When we play in youth football, our family is always scolded as monkeys. Some parents shout this too. My mother almost got into a fight with the group. We learn from an early age that we should make ourselves stronger. ”
Kompany has had an excellent talent for football since childhood. He joined Belgian giants Anderlecht from the age of 6 and played for them until the age of 20. "Football, first of all, is a tool to help me stay out of the chaos of the neighborhood," he concluded. "There's the fiercest competitive environment there. When you're very young, you'll look at top stars as role models and stop thinking of yourself as a child. ”
His mind is flexible, which allows Kompany to learn while playing football. But during his school days, Kompany felt the impact of the division of social classes on his children. He analyzed: "Our society has a clear divide. Children from traditional Belgian families are active in school and become the main influences on the class. My parents, on the other hand, have been busy with work, and their children lack a sense of involvement. ”
At the age of 14, Kompany experienced a series of heavy blows. He was first expelled from the school (the school leaders complained that Kompany was always busy playing with the national junior team and delayed his studies), and then he was expelled from the Belgian junior team (he clashed with the team coach). "I have my own principles of doing things," he continued. "My parents have always struggled with injustice. You can imagine how I would react if my coach or teacher punished me for some unfair reason. I will never budge. ”
It was also during that unfortunate year that Kompany also underwent a knee surgery. His parents were also divorced — and the family was supposed to move out of the government-provided Social Security housing. This is the path of depravity, which seems to have become the inevitable fate of Kompany's life...
"I was very, very close to going astray at one point," he lamented. "If I started selling drugs at this point, I might soon fall into depravity; if I wanted to be handsome in front of girls, I should join a gang." I also know those people and play with them all the time. ”
Fortunately, there is a greater ambition buried in Kompany's heart. "Frustration, racism — they all make me stronger and stronger." For me, the most dangerous things are complacency and inaction – I would never let them into my own life. Those are the most important moments of your life – if you start to fall willingly, you are giving up everything. ”
At the age of 17, in 2004, Kompany became the youngest international player ever recorded by the Belgian national team. Two years later, he moved from Anderlecht to Bundesliga club Hamburg for a record value. After another 2 years, he joined Manchester City with a value of 8 million pounds.
According to Kompany, it was at the age of 16 that he realized he had the potential to become a professional player. He told me: "I used to think: 'If I could make £300 a month by playing football and then go to the supermarket and get a job, I would be very satisfied.'" This way I can save up money to buy a small house with a garden for my family. I never felt like a genius, or had some kind of special talent. Many of the abilities that seem to be geniuses are practiced in ordinary days. ”
However, Jacques Lichtstein, the agent who has long worked with Kompany, does not agree with the views expressed by the players themselves. He told me, "This is all bullshit! Kompany is a once-in-50-year genius. Look at his physique and look at his speed. He is a gift from His Father and, if you believe God's Word, to us. ”
Lichstein also told reporters about a past event of that year. Several agents from Italy, with backpacks full of cash, prepared to lure the 16-year-old Kompany into an agency contract with him, only to have Kompany flatly reject their "kindness" – in fact, at that time, Kompany and Lichstein did not formally sign any agency licensing contracts, and the players only verbally chose this agent. "If there's one word to describe Kompany on the pitch, it's 'captain'; off the pitch, it's supposed to be 'loyal'..." he concluded.
Kompany has been captain for a long time at Manchester City
In February 2019, a month before Kompany's interview with this author, Kompany and his wife Carla held a charity dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Manchester. The event was originally held not only to commemorate Kompany's 10 years at Manchester City Club, but also to raise funds for his charitable foundation, The Stack4MCR. The number of people forced to sleep on the streets in Manchester has decreased significantly in recent years, but at least 300 people still have to spend the night in social shelters every night; around Piccadilly station, homeless begging remains a common phenomenon. It's hard to imagine a well-to-do professional player paying attention to the survival of this group of people.
That night, all members of the Manchester City team came to the Hilton Hotel to stand for their captain. Football star Rhinekel became the host of the party, and he also posted a photo of himself with Kompany on the Internet. Former Oasis lead singer Gallagher gave a "zero-distance performance" to guests who raised at least £1,000 that night. The guitar he donated was auctioned for £50,000 that night. The charity dinner has raised more than £250,000.
Kompany successfully hosted a charity dinner in February this year
Kompany's father also came to the scene. Although Pierre just won in politics four months ago, he has always been very low-key. He says he's proud of his son — both for his career and his philanthropic projects. Among all the female guests, Kara, dressed in an appliquéd, suspender dress, was radiant. Her girlfriends were congratulating him on hosting a successful dinner with Vinnie.
Reinker also joked about Kompany on the spot: "Vinnie is definitely different from other centre-backs in my mind, for example, he can say a whole sentence in its entirety. He then began to say seriously: "He is the kind of player who is rare and can be widely respected and loved." He transcends the hatred of the football world. ”
Kompany, who was dressed in a proper tuxedo that night, said in his speech: "Whenever we return home with our children, whenever we look into the eyes of other people, we can tell ourselves with a clear conscience: 'We have done our best for this community.'" ’”
Back in the parlor of Kompany's home, I asked him if he was so keen on this type of social activity because he had always felt a certain "guilt" in his psyche – after all, he was paid up to £120,000 a week. "There is absolutely no such guilt," he responded. "I do it because I want to do it, and I have the ability to do it. Thanks to football for making me a lot of money. My mother was a socialist, a marginalized Communist—it had become her nature to fight for the power of the exploited. My father was a political refugee. Those are my past. I'm used to asking myself, 'Am I doing enough?' ’”
Kompany has visited social shelters, but never invites journalists to take pictures of himself. "I don't like putting on a show like that. Go take a few random photos with poor homeless people, and that won't solve any problems. I told myself what to really do for these people who need help. But in fact, I need to mobilize those who are richer than I am, while I still have some influence. So at that dinner we met some of the richest merchants in the city, and Kompany knew very well that he couldn't have a lot of appeal forever.
As Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has promised to the public to completely solve the problem of (homeless) street sleep in 2020. He told reporters that Kompany had more influence than any other politician.
In addition to this, Tackle4MCR operates other philanthropic projects around the world. For example, they have teamed up with SOS Children's Village to shelter more than 100 orphans in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in Belgium, he has created a football club called BX Brussels, which has 1,500 registered players and volunteers.
"I never think of football as a simple sport," he says. "It's the thing that has the most chance of impressing everyone. It teaches discipline and provides discussion for everyone. We try to help them improve their language skills, and in Brussels you have to master 2-4 languages to get a job. I've seen troubled teenagers in the eyes of some neighbors partner with typical good kids. This is only possible in the dressing room. ”
Off the pitch, Kompany also has a colourful life
Most Premier League players retire around the age of 35. Their incomes will drop dramatically and their quality of life is likely to change. Some players declare financial bankruptcy even a few years after retiring... And Kompany has been planning for the rain from an early age. He's eloquent, he's been invited to be a guest on television; he's a natural leader, so he's fit for a coaching role; and he's been working on a degree in business administration since 2012, and he's clearly ready to do some punches in the business.
"(Learning) is necessary. If you have a high income and you're the kind of person who wants to do everything yourself, doing business can be a disaster. I have suffered no less in the past, I used to think I was a smart person, and as a result, those blows deeply hurt my self-esteem. "He invested £2 million to open two sports bars in Belgium, and after only one year of operation, the two stores closed." Losing a little money is nothing, the point is that you feel cheated. ”
Kompany is also interested in investing in the media and real estate sectors. He lamented, "For more than a decade in your life, you have lived in an isolated bubble. Money will even come to you voluntarily. It seems as if there will never be an end to such a day. But the fact that you can see the end point is related to everyone's physical limits. ”
Kompany received his master's degree in international business administration in 2017
He can also see the unfairness of society through the business circle. "When I talk about the people in the core power sectors — private or public — making decisions in the conference rooms are predominantly male Caucasians. That has to change. At least at this stage, we can't get there yet. Take the example of a football club's board of directors and look at its composition and you will immediately see some serious phenomena. It's still a breeding ground for inequality. ”
Like most of us, Kompany is concerned with international politics. When it comes to politics, he becomes quite angry. "I can't look at someone and say, 'I know what he really thinks,' that's a show!" He complained. With the British government making the decision to leave the European Union three years ago, Kompany also began to feel like he had "become a foreigner" here. He was very worried that the "selfish behavior" of the British would have a bad chain reaction. "If the EU collapses as a result, we will return to our respective dangerous areas, and you can see how the current political landscape in Europe has changed."
He called US President Donald Trump "a lunatic"; he also said that there are currently as many political dangers in Europe as the United States. "If you divide the EU, you're going to spawn a whole bunch of political lunatics everywhere advocating isolation." They'll rely on tough rhetoric in exchange for votes, and when they've forced themselves into a corner, who can guarantee they won't be the first to press the risk button? "So has Kompany considered entering politics after retiring from the army?" No, the world never belonged to politicians! ”
During his time at Manchester City, Kompany helped the team win nine major tournament titles
That afternoon, I walked with Kompany into City's first-team base. Since Guardiola gave the players two days off beforehand, the players were as excited to see each other as the students who had just finished a summer vacation. Today's work schedule includes: testing physical function, physiotherapy, team meetings and eating a healthy meal.
The thick clouds began to dissipate, and we saw the "Manchester City Blue" above our heads again. Kompany sweated hard for 2 hours inside the base. Here, whether it's the security guards on duty or the first-team head coach Guardiola, they will call him "Venney". His attitude towards the game, his teammates, coaches and staff is impeccable.
Looking at "Vinnie" in training, I suddenly remembered a conversation from a previous interview. I asked him how he had changed compared to his new man. "Ten years ago, I was a young lad who had just had the chance to play in the Premier League," he replied. "Now, although I still have that attitude of 'I can conquer the world', I have also learned to respect planning and time." In the next dozen years, Kompany is destined to prove his leadership as another role besides professional players. After all, he had always been a man who couldn't stay idle. "I need to absorb all kinds of nutrients all the time, and I always want to figure out why everything is going on. I don't remember having a lazy Sunday. ”
It was 5 p.m. and the club lights were already on. The sweaty Kompany hugged and said goodbye to the author— he had already apologized in advance. Although his Manchester City career is coming to an end, he is still so happy, energetic and eager to try.
(Dapeng)