So Vincent Kompany can recover: Clear message for everyone visiting the Bayern Munich coach in hospital
Bayern Munich’s Vincent Kompany is in hospital after collapsing on Friday. People who want to visit him there must follow a strict instruction.
Whether Vincent Kompany will watch his team play away to second-placed SC Freiburg on matchday seven of the Bundesliga from his hospital bed remains unclear. The Bayern Munich coach is currently undergoing thorough examinations following his collapse on Friday.
For now, Bayern Munich's officials want Kompany to spend as little time as possible thinking about football.
Christian Falk, head of football at BILD and a long-time Bayern reporter, reports that the club has told everyone visiting Kompany not to talk to him about football. Conversations should be personal rather than work-related so the coach can focus solely on his recovery.
On Saturday, Bayern Munich's honorary president Uli Hoeneß visited Kompany. The Bayern Munich patron brought a bag of food from the Munich delicatessen Feinkost Käfer. Kompany's assistant coach Aaron Denks, who will now stand in for his boss on the touchline, said he had also spoken to Kompany on the phone only about personal matters.
Players and staff had reportedly worried about Kompany for some time
Another report by Germany's largest daily newspaper suggested on Saturday that Bayern Munich players and staff members had grown increasingly concerned about the coach's work ethic and work-life balance in recent weeks. According to the report, Kompany had worked too much, drunk too much coffee, exercised too little and taken on too many tasks.
Despite contracting a persistent and "nasty" virus, as Kompany himself put it, the Belgian had prepared for and overseen the recent matches against Viking Stavanger and FC Arsenal in the Champions League and RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga.
"It really isn't easy to get Vincent to rest," said assistant coach Aaron Danks, who stood in for Kompany at last Tuesday's press conference before the match against Arsenal and will now stand in for him on the Bayern Munich bench until further notice.
"As a coach, you always want to do everything and take care of everything. I caught a pretty nasty virus. Of course, I didn't listen to my body then," Kompany himself said after the match against Arsenal. "And then, at some point, my body said: 'Stop now, lad!' But of course I feel better, otherwise I wouldn't be here." Two days later, Kompany collapsed. Bayern's board member for sport Max Eberl said it could be weeks before he returns to the bench.
How much is Kompany asking of himself?
Kompany's words reveal a great deal about the former world-class defender's work ethic. Even as a player, he was known for being merciless towards his body. He played through injuries and did not take it easy after serious injuries, either. Time and again, he returned to the pitch as quickly as possible. His father Pierre Kompany told the news magazine Der Spiegel, as part of an in-depth profile of the Bayern coach, that Kompany spends up to 14 hours at Bayern's training ground. Pierre Kompany told BILD that Kompany works up to 18 hours and sees little of his three children during the week.
On Saturday, Bayern Munich's board member for sport Max Eberl described Kompany as "an incredible personality, such an unbelievable worker, who then pushes past that point too". He meant it as a compliment. That had "also been lost to some extent in our society, but there are still people like that who say: 'I want to get on with things, I want to do things.'"
Kompany attributes his work ethic to his migrant background and believes he has to work twice as hard as everyone else. From everything that is known, he has now taken on too much. His bosses are addressing precisely that by telling visitors not to talk to him about football.
