Vincent Kompany retires as player to become Anderlecht manager

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.

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

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.

“I want to fully commit to my role as a coach and need 100 per cent of my time and focus for it,” Kompany told the Anderlecht club website. “That’s why I’m quitting as a football player. Our ambition and our hunger remains the same.

“I want to stay with the club for at least four seasons and prove that Anderlecht can play a modern style of football, with results. I want to thank Franky (co-manager Frank Vercauteren) for all his help.”

Anderlecht chief executive Karel Van Eetvelt added: “As everybody knows, this was always the plan.

“It might have come a little sooner than expected, but Vincent committing himself for another four seasons to the club is great news for the club, our supporters and our players.”

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, and 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.”

Send Off from Manchester City:

“It was hard to keep the emotion in. I’m looking around and see this iconic stadium for me, and I see 57,000 people I’m genuinely grateful towards, and next to me my 11 team-mates, of which I have a few players in specific like Kun Aguero and David Silva, who I went through everything with, thinking: ‘We’re still standing and doing this together!’ It was a night of emotions.

“That’s why I will always remain very humble in my life because I think these kind of things only happen because you stay humble, driven and focused. Eventually, somebody says: ‘Here you go, you get your reward.'”

Kompany was an inspirational figure and his presence on the field as the Manchester City Captain over the years was not ever noticeable. Through his incredible leadership skills he went on to lead the club to many titles and acquire legendary status at the Eithad and also capture a place in many a heart of the city hopefuls.

If these leadership skills continue to manifest even out of the Jersey and into the managerial role, then Anderlecht should be in for quite a journey.