Vincent Kompany is the successful coach of FC Bayern. Some time ago, Schalke 04 also wanted to sign the Belgian.

It has been a long time since Schalke 04 and FC Bayern could be mentioned in the same breath. But circumstances currently allow this: the record champions and the local club are both at the top of the table, albeit not in the same league, and are among the strongest teams in Europe.

The father of Schalke’s success is considered to be coach Miron Muslic, who has led the club to success in no time since his arrival in the summer. In Munich, Vincent Kompany is the man of the hour – and he could have ended up at Schalke himself some time ago.

This was revealed by Schalke’s former sporting director Rouven Schröder. On Sunday evening’s Sky90 program, Schröder, who recently became sporting director at Borussia Mönchengladbach, said that he would have liked to bring Kompany to Gelsenkirchen in the summer of 2022. At the time, Schalke had just secured promotion back to the Bundesliga and was looking for a successor to Mike Büskens.
Kompany’s name was also on the list, and Schröder even held talks with the former world-class center back. “When he was at Anderlecht and we were looking for a coach for Schalke for the Bundesliga, I was simply tempted to talk to such a great player,” Schröder reported.
“He was also captain of Manchester City. It was one of the best conversations you can have with a coach. A young, up-and-coming coach. The door opens, he’s huge and super prepared.” Kompany was noted for his “incredible authority and ease” during the meeting.

And Schröder was impressed by the Belgian at the time. “He explained what he was concerned with and what he wanted to do in terms of preparation and follow-up. He had an incredible number of sheets, a PowerPoint presentation that really showed: here is someone who is passionate about playing soccer, training, leading the way. And then there’s his multilingualism. You could sense something there.“

Schalke ended up signing Frank Kramer instead of Vincent Kompany

But it soon became clear that Schalke and Kompany would not be coming together. ”In the end, it was because of his large staff,“ said Schröder. ”It became clear relatively quickly that it wasn’t financially feasible. It just didn’t fit into the budget.”

Especially since Kompany was on the radar of several clubs. He ultimately decided to move to Burnley FC and then transferred to Bayern two years later. And Schalke opted for Frank Kramer, who only remained in office for ten match days. Schröder’s time in Gelsenkirchen also ended a few weeks after the start of the season.