The Belgian was by no means a popular choice to take over from Thomas Tuchel, but he's done a fine job in his first year at the Allianz Arena

Many managers tried. All of them failed. Until Vincent Kompany. On Sunday, the Belgian achieved something that proved beyond the likes of Mauricio Pochettino, Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Gareth Southgate – he won a trophy with Harry Kane in his team, with Bayern Munich reclaiming their Bundesliga title thanks to Bayer Leverkusen's draw at Freiburg which leaves the Bavarians eight points clear with just two games left to play.

Of course, Kane has never been cursed. He just had the misfortune to play for serial losers at club and international level, and join Bayern at a time of tremendous turmoil at the Allianz Arena. Indeed, there were serious doubts over whether they would reclaim their German crown from Leverkusen this season, given last summer's hunt for a worthy successor to Thomas Tuchel did not go according to plan at all, while Xabi Alonso's men were coming off the back of a undefeated double.

Kompany was by no means the club's first-choice to put Bayern back on their perch. His appointment puzzled a lot of people; Sean Dyche still can't get his head around it! But Kompany has silenced the critics with a commanding title triumph.

So, how did he do it? How did Kompany go from relegation with Burnley to Bundesliga glory with Bayern in less than a year? GOAL breaks it all down below…

Getty Images SportFrom Burnley to Bayern

Dyche labelled Kompany's move from Turf Moor to the Allianz Arena "an interesting twist of life". "I don't know how that works," the former Burnley boss admitted on . "I wish I'd have left the club £127 million ($170m) in debt and then got the Bayern job!"

It was certainly a turn up for the books. Kompany had led Burnley back into the Premier League by romping to the Championship title in 2022-23 and earned widespread praise for his team's attractive style of play.

However, the Clarets went straight back down, and although initially commended for sticking to his footballing philosophy, Kompany ended up being criticised for his unwillingness to compromise his principles and embrace a more pragmatic approach in order to try keep Burnley in the top flight.

Consequently, when he was confirmed as Bayern's new boss on May 29 – just 10 days after Burnley had finished their Premier League campaign with an abysmal 24 points from 38 games – the football world was more than a little taken aback.

AdvertisementAFP'Immediately on the same page'

However, it wasn't as if Bayern had that many appealing alternatives available to them. Alonso, Julian Nagelsmann, Ralf Rangnick and Oliver Glasner had all turned the job down, while a desperate, last-ditch attempt to convince Tuchel to continue at the helm had also ended in failure.

Furthermore, in Max Eberl, Kompany had a staunch supporter. The Bayern sporting director felt that Kompany was the kind of hungry, young coach capable of ushering in a new era of success and, perhaps more importantly, stability.

"We would like to see more continuity in this position and, in our talks with him, we were immediately on the same page," Eberl explained. "He clearly showed us how much FC Bayern appeals to him and that he is keen to take on the challenge. He was already a leading figure in top international football as a player and is also leading the way as a coach."

Getty Images Sport'Absolutely perfect coach for Bayern'

Former chairman of the Bayern board Karl-Heinz Rummenigge wasn't quite as convinced by Kompany's credentials – but that all changed after accepting Eberl's request to speak to Pep Guardiola, the highly-respected Catalan coach who not only won three consecutive Bundesliga titles at the Allianz Arena but also enjoyed great success with Kompany as his captain at Manchester City.

"I told Pep I needed an authentic and honest analysis," Rummenigge explained in an interview with . "We then were talking on the phone for almost two hours. To make a long story short, he said that he was 100 percent sure that Vincent Kompany would be the absolutely perfect coach for Bayern." It's certainly gone well so far.

Getty Images Sport'Felt like I was back in the days of Guardiola'

Bayern made a record-breaking start to the Bundesliga season, with four consecutive wins, while they also opened their Champions League campaign with a historic 9-2 demolition of Dinamo Zagreb. Due to the intensive pressing and pretty patterns of play that underpinned Kompany's side, comparisons were quickly drawn with the man who had recommended him for the job.

"I felt like I was back in the days of Bayern under Guardiola," Werder Bremen sporting director Clemens Fritz said after watching his side lose 5-0 at the Weserstadion. "Bayern played with a lot of intensity and had incredible ball control.

"In the recent past, Bayern always gave you phases where you could gain possession of the ball and find your own structure. But there was such an intensity that even in the 88th minute, Kompany was still pushing his players from the sideline, and the players also wanted to keep going. This counter-pressing didn't give us any time to breathe."