“I lost my mother and my sister got cancer”: emotional Vincent Kompany looks back on a dark period and puts bad start at Burnley into perspective

With one point from five games and a difficult move to Newcastle, Vincent Kompany and Burnley have not yet turned their return to the Premier League into a success story. But Kompany keeps a cool head, partly because of the experiences that have shaped him as a young footballer and as a person himself.

In an interview in the run-up to the move to Newcastle, Kompany was confronted with his team’s difficult start. Our compatriot responded emotionally and referred to the difficult period at the beginning of his career at German Hamburg.

Kompany still calls it “by far my most difficult period” and that experience helps him to remain calm in the difficult period he is currently experiencing as a coach. “I was the biggest transfer in the club’s history, but when I got there I immediately got injured, tore my Achilles tendon and was out for nine months.”

Vincent Kompany as a player at Hamburg. — © rr

Family suffering

And that wasn’t the only suffering. “My mother died during that period and I stood on my own two feet for the first time. My sister got cancer and the club was fighting relegation after exiting the Champions League. I spent Christmas at the club working hard on my own because what was the point of going home? But you’ll figure it out in the end. That’s my story and those are the moments when I know what I’ve done. My career was much more complex than the trophies you see me lifting at the end.”

Kompany has not lost faith in the possibilities of his team. “When I was fourteen years old, they said I would no longer be a footballer at 24. When I was 19, I started having problems with my back and then with my Achilles tendon. It was said that I would never be fit again. That experience helps me in moments like these.”

© Getty Images

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