He looks after the cockatoo and has already had a spectacular experience standing in for Kompany at Bayern Munich: who is Aaron Danks, Bayern Munich’s head coach in Freiburg?
Vincent Kompany will be absent for Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga match in Freiburg following his collapse at the training ground. His assistant Aaron Danks will stand in for the head coach.
Who exactly is this 43-year-old Englishman? Asked at Saturday morning's press conference whether he felt pressure now that he was in the spotlight, Danks kept his answer measured. "If you see it as pressure, then of course it can become pressure. But for us as a coaching team, it's simply a matter of sticking to our routines and the way we work. After all, we've been doing that together for a long time now," he said, sounding as calm and level-headed as his boss.
Kompany cannot be there in Freiburg after collapsing at the training ground on Friday and undergoing examinations at a Munich hospital. The Belgian's condition is stable, sporting director Max Eberl said on Saturday. Asked when Kompany might return, though, Eberl spoke in terms of weeks.
On the pitch, Bayern have no such worries. Eberl and Co. know how closely Kompany works with his coaching team, and Danks plays a key role in it. He oversees practice games and set pieces and often takes on a significant share of the coaching in training. His calm, dependable manner has also made him popular with the squad.
Aaron Danks has embraced "the spirit of Vinnie" at Bayern Munich
"We have such a fantastic coaching staff. Vinnie is at the head of it, but the success is based on the team. There's no thought of changing anything. They all have the spirit of Vinnie in them, and that's how we'll approach the next few weeks too," Eberl stressed. Danks has already stood in for Kompany on a huge stage.
At the end of April, the Englishman took charge on an even bigger occasion than Sunday's match in the Breisgau region. A suspension for yellow cards forced Kompany to watch the first leg of the Champions League semi-final away to Paris Saint-Germain from the stands, leaving Danks on the touchline. From there, he witnessed a match widely regarded as one of the most spectacular in Champions League history, as Bayern lost 5-4 at PSG.
Afterwards, Danks earned plenty of praise for his performance. His coaching career began at just 15, when he already had clear goals. He even left secondary school to travel around his home city of Birmingham "with a bag of balls, bibs and a bus ticket", running sessions at schools and holiday camps.
Aaron Danks also made a name for himself at the English Football Association
His next step took him into youth coaching at Birmingham City. At 22, he moved to West Bromwich Albion's academy, where he stayed for eleven years. Danks also made a name for himself at the English Football Association as a possession coach for England's youth national teams. He held that role in 2017 when the Three Lions' Under-20s became world champions.
Danks also worked with Jamal Musiala for a time in England's Under-21s before the pair met again at Bayern. His work at the FA impressed Kompany, who once called him "one of England's most talented coaches". In the summer of 2021, Kompany appointed Danks as his assistant coach at RSC Anderlecht, but Danks left after just two months. He could not pass up the chance to become an assistant coach at Aston Villa, back home in Birmingham.
Aaron Danks sometimes brings his son to Bayern Munich training
After staying at Villa until October 2022 and spending a further year and a half as an assistant at Middlesbrough, Danks reunited with Kompany in the summer of 2024. Since then, he has felt as much at home at Säbener Straße as his boss. He sometimes even brings his son Coby to training.
Coby joined him again during the week. The 16-year-old watched training the day before the big match against Arsenal (2-2) and lent a hand too. "My family still live in England, so I'm here in Munich on my own. During the school holidays, the family come over and I spend a bit of time with them. And then we like to invite Coby to be on the touchline and watch training," Danks told Bild. "He helps the kit staff, packs the equipment for us and collects the balls. It's just a nice little treat for him and for me as a father working abroad."
Has Aaron Danks been in contact with Vincent Kompany ahead of Bayern's match in Freiburg?
That family spirit has long characterised Bayern, particularly under Kompany, and Danks embodies it. He also looks after the cockatoo that Bayern took from an upmarket Munich restaurant during their 2025 championship celebrations. The bird has been at every title party since.
With the cockatoo in his arms, Danks has shown he can party. When standing in for Kompany, he has shown composure, and he has approached the current situation the same way. Danks said he had "spoken briefly" with Kompany on Friday evening, but they did not discuss football or preparations for the match in Freiburg. "It was solely to hear how he's doing health-wise. Everything to do with football is in our hands now, and we're working as a team to keep moving the club forward," Kompany's stand-in said.
