Can the 'Korean Iron Pillar' restore his plummeting value with a new coach?
As expected, center back Kim Min-jae, who plays for Germany's most prestigious club, Bayern Munich, will be coached by Vincent Kompany. We wonder what kind of chemistry he'll have with the youngest coach of his career, only 10 years his junior. The day Kompany was hired, Kim's market value plummeted. The more Kompany, a former central defender, uses Kim in the same position, the more his valuation will rebound.
“The club has appointed Vincent Kompany as its new head coach,” Munich announced on the club's official website on Tuesday. Kompany has signed a contract with the club until June 30, 2027.”
The long search for a new coach is over. In February, the Bavarians mutually decided to part ways with Thomas Tuchel at the end of the 2023-2024 season by mutual consent, but the search for his successor continued for a long time afterward.
Immediately after Tuchel's departure was confirmed, Munich's top choice for the next coach was Xabi Alonso, who led Bayer Leverkusen to their first ever German Bundesliga title this season, but the club had to look elsewhere when Alonso himself announced he would remain at Leverkusen.
Julian Nagelsmann (Germany national team), Ralf Rangnick (Austria national team), Unai Emery (Aston Villa), Oliver Glasner (Crystal Palace) and Robert De Zerbi (Brighton & Hove Albion) were all rejected.
That's where Max Eberle, who took over at Munich in March, came in. “There's a manager in the Premier League that I've been looking at,” Eberle said a month ago, and Kompany was the man. It was a surprise appointment.
The appointment of Kompany became a reality on Monday when the club's majority owner, former legendary striker Karl-Heinz-Rummenigge, confirmed the appointment at a ceremony on Sunday. Kompany arrived at Munich Airport on Monday and went straight to the club's Munich office to sign his contract.
Kompany was in charge of Burnley, who finished 19th in the English Premier League this season and were relegated, but Munich negotiated a penalty fee to reduce Kompany's contract with Burnley to scraps of paper. At one point, it was said that Burnley wanted a penalty fee of 300 million euros, but it was eventually settled on 12 million euros ($18 million). That's not far off what Munich wanted.
At his first press conference on Tuesday, Kompany said, “I wasn't surprised by the offer. I was so focused on my job that I didn't have time to think about it,” he said, adding: ”I chose to coach the youngest team in Belgium and one of the smallest in England. I want to help the players develop here too, I have a clear vision and I will implement it in Germany.”
“It's too early to talk about the players,” he said, “but I want to know how hungry they are, because this year Bayern Munich were not champions at the end. We'll see which players are hungry enough to play here.”
With Kompany calling for a 'hungry mentality', Kim Min-jae will be looking to keep his fitness up until his first call-up. His market value has been slashed by 25 percent in the second half of the season due to his poor form, so if he can fight for survival under Kompany, he could see his value rebound.
German transfer market publication Transfermarkt updated its list of Bundesliga players on March 29. It was the first time in more than three months since the last update on March 27th.
According to the report, Kim Min-jae's price dropped by 5 million euros from 60 million euros ($89.3 billion) in December last year to 55 million euros ($82 billion) in March, and then dropped again by 10 million euros to 45 million euros ($67 billion). In half a year, a quarter of the ransom has disappeared. Kim made his European debut in 2021, when he moved from Beijing Guoan to Fenerbahce in the Chinese Ligue 1. At the time, he was valued by the media at just €6.5 million.
He then went on to play for Fenerbahce and then Napoli in the Italian Serie A in the 2022-2023 season, where his market value soared to €60 million last summer.
But within six months, €15 million had disappeared. The reason is clear. This year, he's been relegated to the bench behind Eric Dier and Matthias Düricht, and his club, Bayern Munich, hasn't won a title in 12 years. After missing out on the 토토사이트 Bundesliga, UEFA Champions League, and DFB Pokal, the market value of Munich's players has fallen, most notably Kim Min-jae.
However, there is some positive news with Kompany's appointment, and it will be important for Kim to see how he performs in preseason training and friendlies under Kompany.
In a podcast with Bild's Munich coverage, Christian Polk and Toby Altschepple revealed Munich's “release list” of six players, and Kim was not on it.
Left-back Alfonso Davies, who is demanding double his current €10 million ($14.5 billion) salary; midfielder Leon Goretzka, who has one year left on his contract and is losing ground; and big-money but ineffective players Dayo Upamecano, Josua Kimmich, Kingsley Coman, and Serge Gnabry were also on Kompany's list for the immediate future. All of these players were paid between 200 and 300 million won per year, yet they were pushed out of the starting lineup.
Here's a story from Spain's Mundo Deportivo that says the defender, who Munich have had their eye on since the days of former coach Thomas Tuchel, is effectively considered 'unsaleable' by his current club Barcelona. Good news for Kim Min-jae.
Then, Kicker, Germany's top soccer publication, published a nuanced report that Kim is not on the release list.
“The Munich club is looking for six buyers,” said Georg Holzner, a journalist covering Munich for Kicker, “but their high salaries make it difficult to find a buyer. There aren't many clubs in the Premier League that would pay that kind of money. To ease the burden on the players, Munich is also considering paying a portion of their salaries if they move to another club. The club has been mismanaged in the last few years and the new owner, Max Eberle, wants to put an end to that.”
The six players are believed to be Gnabry, Kimmich, Comand, Goretzka and Upamecano, who were previously mentioned by Polk and Altseppl. Add to that Leroy Sane, who is a favorite of Kompany's, but whose ability to produce offensive points has dropped off this season.
After admitting that he was frustrated at the end of the season because his style of play was different from former coach Thomas Tuchel's, Kim Min-jae has been rehabbing an ankle injury sustained in a Bundesliga match in the middle of this month and missed the first two A-League matches in June to prepare for the new season.
Unlike last summer, he hasn't had to do any basic military training, so he'll be 100 percent ready for Kompany. It's a pivotal time in his soccer career in many ways.
With reports that Kompany wants to sign England international center back John Stones, who plays for Manchester City, this summer will be crucial for Kim.
