Vincent Kompany, the manager of Burnley who guided the Clarets to promotion into the 2023/24 Premier League season could be the only black manager in the English top-flight next season.
Kompany is preparing to make his debut in arguably Europe’s most exciting league as he is expected to pioneer Burnley’s ambitions for next season.
The Belgian hung up his boots in 2020 after reaching great heights winning four Premier League titles, 2 FA Cups, 4 EFL Cup titles and 2 Community Shields with Manchester City.
Kompany left Manchester City and headed for his home country, Belgium to play for Anderlecht where he started his football career.
The 37-year-old made 18 appearances for Anderlecht during the 2019/20 season and in that campaign he became player-manager of the side.
He opened up on his time as player-manager of the Brussels side saying “Being a player-manager is mad.” but he said that it is worth the experience.
Kompany stated: “It is definitely worth the experience once.
“What I did have was a fantastic relationship with the group. When you can still be amongst them on the pitch…
“I would never say it at City but there (Anderlecht) I was the best, and I was also able to bring across a bit of the culture that I want to bring in, like competing for everything in training, fighting with kids who are like 16!
“We did this little one-on-one drill with small goals just to increase that competitiveness and stuff and I’m there, 34-year-old international, fighting with kids that are 16. One of them was (Jeremy) Doku, these kind of guys.”
The next campaign, Vincent Kompany took over the managerial job fully from Frank Vercauteren and led the team to 4th position and the Semi-final of the Belgian cup.
After leading Anderlecht to the Belgian cup and 4th place, Kompany led the Begian side to third place and the Belgian cup final but couldn’t guide the club to the trophy.
The 37-year-old joined Burnley in 2022 and in less than a year, he has turned the club around.
He has assisted them to gain promotion to the English Premier League for the 2023/24 campaign and the former Hamburger SV player guided Burnley to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
Presently, no English Premier League team is being coached by a black manager after Crystal Palace dismissed Patrick Vieira earlier this campaign.
And based on that, Vincent Kompany is set to become the only black manager in the Premier League if the other clubs in the English top-flight do not appoint any manager before the commencement of the new season.
In 2020, the Premier League board began the Football Association’s Diversity Code which was targeted at tackling racial inequality in English football.
However in 2022, a report showed that a tiny 4.4% of coaches in the Premier League and English Football League are black.
Moreover, only 14% of black individuals are reportedly said to have top coaching qualifications, a UEFA pro license that would give them the opportunity to manage in Europe.
Discussing with the BBC, Vincent Kompany gave his response on the situation, The Belgian said that “it’s part of a bigger discussion” for him.
Kompany further said: “You go through any kind of decision-making position in any industry you can think of, you’ll see similar statistics if not worse.
“I think the key is to have a change of the boardrooms in general. And once the boardrooms reflect society, then you will see decision-makers reflecting society as well.”
Vincent Kompany’s dad, Pierre, is a Congolese immigrant to Belgium and serves as his agent.
In October 2018, Kompany’s dad, Pierre was elected the mayor of Ganshoren, making him the first black mayor in Belgium.
Vincent Kompany married his Manchester born girlfriend who goes by the name Carla Higgs on the 11th of June, 2011.
Carla Higgs is a lifelong fan of Manchester City and the pair have a daughter born in 2010, and two sons, born in 2013 and 2015.
Kompany has an interest in politics and he graduated with an MBA at Manchester Business School in 2018 after several years of study. Kompany has been referred to as “erudite” and “eloquent”.
In April 2014, Kompany opened two new sports bars in Belgium and both bars are known as Good Kompany. One of the bars is located at the Grand Place in Brussels and the other situated at the Groenplaats in Antwerp.
However, Vincent Kompany closed down both bars within one year of their opening. After closing down the bars, the 37-year-old was quoted saying:
“I regret this decision. We had enough customers, turnover was good, but not enough to cover the costs.
“So that’s where it ends. Lesson 1 in business: investments are always a risk. You win some, you lose some.”
