![]() The footballer was born in Uccle in Brussels in 1986. ![]() He is focused as he talks, with an occasional smile when talking about his family or home city. Kompany lights up when he sees the old books on the Rylands’ shelves. But it was brief and good-natured, he says. “It was banter constantly and you knew whenever you opened a book you got hammered a little bit,” he recalls. Such environments inspired him to work - and put up with teammates’ jokes when he opted for a book rather than a film on flights to games. The University of Manchester-owned Gothic revival building, with a reading room reminiscent of a church nave, opened in 1900. Rather than City’s Etihad Stadium, where he has played since 2008, he picks the John Rylands Library for our interview. Did he ever think of giving up? “Yes, many times.” He began playing at the Anderlecht academy in Brussels at the age of six, so football comes easily - but study was hard. “That evolving is something that I will keep for myself for the rest of my life,” he says. “Actually doing something in front of a very small audience, but it’s out of your comfort zone . . . I find the second one a lot more challenging than the first.” That is what the MBA forced him to do. Video: Footballer Vincent Kompany scores an MBA “You know that you’re really good at something and you know that you’ve practised it all of your life, so you feel comfortable. His relaxed appearance playing in front of 50,000 fans and millions on TV is no illusion, he says. It can be an ugly position to play but his strength along with pace is his calmness, the way he reads a situation to intervene before it gets desperate. Kompany is a central defender and stands almost 1m 93cm tall. If you talk to a top accountant about his field of expertise, it’s mind-boggling. Grasping technical language was part of the battle. “It’s daunting when you have to look up the title of the book before you can open it.” But with the dedication of a professional athlete and help from his tutors he set about “learning how to learn”. “I had to research the name of the course before I could even start,” he says, smiling. He realised early on that he was “out of his depth” when the topic was corporate finance. “I started like someone going to war with just his bare fist,” Kompany says, raising it to emphasise how unprepared he was. He received his Global MBA in 2017 and has no doubt it has improved him as a businessman and as a person. ![]() Kompany, 31, studied part-time for five years at Alliance Manchester Business School. Vincent Kompany has won plenty of accolades in his football career but the Manchester City captain believes his latest achievement is among his greatest: an MBA. Pep Guardiola's side are looking to bring in Josko Gvardiol in defence, though, having already signed Matteo Kovacic this summer.Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Jude Bellingham reportedly turned down the new European champions after taking inspiration from Erling Haaland's career path – though Alphonso Davies could move to the Etihad Stadium. Īfter securing a historic Treble, Manchester City transfer news is gathering steam ahead of next season. In FourFourTwo's Season Preview, we assess if Manchester City can break even more records next season. I do think he was a bit ahead of his time, because he was taking a more individual approach to the group.” More Manchester City stories “If someone needed shouting at, he could do that, but if someone needed gentle advice, he could do that too. He was always good at relaying messages to people, even if it had to be done in different ways. Others did too, but he wasn’t just a good player, he drove those standards he was the one who organised the fines, demanding respect from everyone. “Vinny helped create the character of the football club. ![]() Vincent Kompany led Burnley to promotion in his first season in charge (Image credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images) ![]()
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