Vincent Kompany
Someone might come close to dying, and they'll enjoy life much more than everyone else. I came close to the death of my sports career, and I enjoy everything coming my way.Collection: Sports
I kind of press pause when it's a derby, and the season doesn't matter to me anymore; it's all about the derby.
The biggest pass for a defender is a pass forward.
I think people generally have a good heart and the intention to help.
I don't think you can underestimate the impact of the gaffer.
If you talk to a top accountant about his field of expertise, it's mind-boggling.
I love the derby because of the banter and rivalry. If you live outside of Manchester, you can take it out of context sometimes, where you can think it's all hate, and I don't think it is.
Chelsea are one of the most exciting teams in the Premier League.
There is a lot of talent and a lot of good things happening and coming from Molenbeek, but unfortunately, it has had to deal with a very, very long time of being ignored, really, and it was very easy, even in the neighbourhood where I grew up, to just fall off the grid, and nobody would notice it.
I always believe that luck and faith will be on my side more than the other side.
Football is so intense you don't have time to sit back and look at what you have achieved.
Once you achieve a goal and you are on that high, you have to consciously pull yourself in to say, 'I need to have the same hunger and desire as when I had nothing.' That's the hardest thing to do in life. That is getting challenged every single day once you win titles.
When I was coming through, I had very little support from the older players. I always said to myself that if I make it, I never want to be that kind of person. I have a passion for seeing young players develop, so every young player who comes into the first team, I am willing to listen. I will give him everything I have.
Our generation has been described as a golden generation. I hate that term.
I want to be involved as a fan, as a player, as a manager, as a technical director, as a groundsman. It doesn't matter. Whichever way the club sees me helping them out, I'll always be around.
I'm an adopted Mancunian. This city has grown on me. I have a wife from Manchester and have three kids who think they are more Mancuniuan than anything else, which is a problem I need to address!
We can't always wait on the government to sort out all issues. I think they set policies, they set the rules, but we all have a duty to help as much as we can.
I've been very lucky - I don't come from a privileged upbringing.
We've had a humble upbringing. You know, my father came through as a political refugee; my mother comes from a hard-working-farmers family. We've had humble upbringing.
It's a mistake to think that there's a difference between someone on the street and someone not on the street.
As wealthy as you are, nothing, nothing, nothing guarantees you that through a breakdown of relationship, your kids won't end up on the streets. It's nothing to do with wealth: sometimes it can be down to other things, like the breakdown of relationships.
I'm someone who takes on information quite well, so there's maybe a path into management. But I see what successful managers have to go through to get to that level - it's a completely different ball game - so I think I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
Once I finish playing, I'm still a Manchester City player for the rest of my life. That won't change.
Only the very best clubs are able to pass the baton of continuity down through the generations.
I would say Pep Guardiola's No. 1 quality is that he sees the technical and tactical aspect of a game really fast.
I remember having a discussion at some stage and saying a coffee machine would do well in the training ground. Everyone was like, 'No, in England, we drink tea.' I was like, 'OK, I was just saying that I think coffee works as well.' Next thing you know, after the international break, we had this massive coffee machine come in from Nespresso.
I remember always going to the train station where I grew up, and on the wall was written, 'The real wealth of a nation is diversity of cultures.' Where I grew up, that's what I saw, and that's what I believe in as well - and I still believe it.
I want my kids to go and see the world and understand they are privileged, but it doesn't mean they don't have the right to speak up and see what is happening.
I was desperate to leave Hamburg. The club was awesome, don't get me wrong, but I had a personal issue with one of the board members. He was desperate to get me out. The first club came calling, and it was Man City.
You are not guaranteed to be part of that story if you don't perform.
Everybody is different. Some players need a lot of rest and just be at home.
Funnily enough, I think Gary Neville is very interesting... and talks a lot of sense.
You win the mental war when you have success. You lose it when you don't have success.
When I was a kid in my neighborhood, there was nobody that supported Belgium. It was impossible and unthinkable because there was nothing they could relate to.
I think that's the reason why I'm proud to play for Belgium - because I can take ownership. I'm not saying that I'm not proud of being Congolese as well - but I'm saying this is also my country, and anything that happens in my country, I want to have a say.
Maybe from the outside, Belgium looks complicated to understand, but from the inside, actually, every country is complicated.
I've been living in England for a while, and I am still trying to figure out why we have Great Britain playing the Olympics together and England in football.
I am 100% Congolese and 100% Belgian. I am very proud of it.
What annoys me most is it is so easy to focus on negatives all the time. All you hear is a lot of people - whether it is industry leaders or politicians - complaining about everything. I don't deny things are not always perfect, but the stage it gets is huge compared with the simple things that make people happy, like winning a football match.
Everyone in Manchester in general has a positive mindset.
I'd rather give up most of my wealth to have the guarantee that I can carry on working for the rest of my life.
I find football much more powerful than what grown-ups want it to be. It's a community to me; it's something very meaningful in the life of many, many people and especially the youth. And, therefore, I think it can bring social cohesion.
On any longball, people try to outjump each other. I don't mind a big jump, but to be honest, the only thing you have to do is fight for the spot where the ball is going to land.
When there's pressure on the ball, you can go man-to-man on your striker; you've got the advantage because the ball pressure means it'll be a difficult pass to play.
It's funny: one of the strongest parts of my game today is heading, and that only really developed when I started playing at the professional level. In the youth teams, all we did was passing.
Pep's tactical and technical assessments are like nothing I've ever seen before, and I think that's why people enjoy to see him fail.
It doesn't take a lot to imagine what City means to me: it's been my life for the last almost ten years now. I'm grateful for what the club has given me, and I've given everything to the club.
I've been able to come back at a high level which is something I'm happy about, not just stand on the pitch but able to perform as well.
I'll be connected with City for the rest of my life - as a fan, as an employee, as an ambassador. Whatever City decide or I decide, it's not something we can undo. We're tied to each other for life.
Every club you sign for, they give you the same pitch - 'We've got a big project, big ambitions. We want to achieve this and that. We want to kick on' - and I just happen to be lucky that City was the one club that didn't lie about it.