Vincent Kompany & Martín Demichelis: a shared destiny from Manchester City to the dugout

· Bundesliga-Official

Vincent Kompany and Martín Demichelis played together at Manchester City and were both international centre-backs during title-laden playing careers – their paths now cross again as they go head-to-head in the dugout with Bayern Munich hosting RB Leipzig on Matchday 6.

In September 2013, Kompany had already been at City for five years and was established as club captain when Demichelis arrived at the English Premier League club, who had seen their neighbours United claim the top-flight title City themselves had lifted just the season before.

> "I have been in Europe for 11 years now and this was a great chance for me to play in the Premier League with such a big club,” said Demichelis, who won four Bundesliga-DFB Cup doubles between summer 2003 and October 2010 at Bayern, his first European posting. "I don't think there'll be any problems in adjusting to life here."

He was right. Though initially brought in as cover following an injury to Kompany, the pair went on to play 54 games together in all competitions, establishing impressive figures of 33 wins and just nine defeats in that time as they won the 2013/14 Premier League title and two EFL Cups alongside each other.

> "As a player, he was a very intelligent player. By the time I played with him, he was a little bit older than me,” Kompany, who is some five years younger than his former defensive partner, told the Bundesliga in an exclusive interview . “I saw how he was able to play at the top level, still using a lot of his understanding of the game to perform.

> “I was a little bit stronger and a bit faster because I was younger, but he was still performing because he understood the game so well. On the ball, he was a player with a lot of quality as well. We had success together, so we won the league together. It'll be good to see him again, but as a coach now."

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