Sir Alex Ferguson visited Celtic Park to witness Vincent Kompany nightmare in person as Bayern boss bares all
Vincent Kompany will face Celtic in the Champions League with his managerial career still very much in its infancy.
And it was a young player just starting out on a playing career that would eventually lead to huge success that he faced the Hoops in the same competition.
Kompany was already making a name for himself at the age of 17 with Anderlecht when he came up against Martin O’Neill’s Celtic in the 2003/04 season in the Champions League group stage and both games proved to be huge learning experiences for the then teenager - good and bad. In the first of the two encounters, he saw fellow defender Glen De Boeck sent off in Brussels only for the 10-man Belgians to snatch an unlikely win thanks to a goal from Aruna Dindane.
But Celtic got their revenge in the return at Parkhead, where Kompany takes his Bayern Munich side on Wednesday for the first leg of their knockout phase play-off round, with the Scottish champions running out 3-1 winners.
Dindane was again on target but by then the game was well out of the reach of the Belgians following a first half blitz that saw Henrik Larsson, Liam Miller and Record Sport columnist Chris Sutton all score in the opening half hour.
Anderlecht were blown away and many years later Kompany revealed it was a man not on that scoresheet who was his toughest ever opponent.
He was Manchester City captain at the time and during a Q&A with fans he said: “I've faced many, many great strikers. But the toughest one was when I was actually still a kid and I was 17 years old playing against a great Celtic side.
“And on the other side was Larsson and Hartson which was an unbelievable strike force that they had at the time. And Hartson was just so big! And, at the time, I was about 10 kilos lighter.
“And every challenge in the air or whatever I was just asking myself - 'How come I can't even see the ball when it is coming?’ So he's probably not the strongest striker I have played against. But it was the toughest for the age I was at the period and the profile he was at the time.”
And that harsh night could have cost Kompany a big move as, while he went on to earn legendary status at Manchester City where he was captain and won 10 major trophies, it was their fierce rivals Manchester United who scouted him that night at Parkhead.
Sir Alex Ferguson made a personal check on the rising teenager - and wanted to see how he would cope with Larsson, Sutton and Hartson. United were on the lookout for a potential replacement for Rio Ferdinand who was facing an FA ban for failing to attend a drugs test.
Did that night cost him a move to Old Trafford? In the end, he moved to Hamburg and then the Etihad where he spent 11 trophy-laden years. He returned to his boyhood club Anderlecht to start his managerial career and after two years in Brussels, he left to take over Burnley in the Championship, guiding them to immediate promotion and a title won in impressive style, which earned him a switch to Bundesliga cracks Bayern Munich.
