Bayern Munich spend the international break unbeaten in the Bundesliga, level on 21 points with Borussia Dortmund after nine matches and ahead only on goal difference. Vincent Kompany’s side have won six and drawn three, scored 29 goals and conceded nine, and they built that record while their head coach missed the last five games.
Kompany collapsed during a second-team training session on 23 October, and doctors diagnosed meningeal irritation, an inflammation of the membranes around the brain. His assistant, Aaron Danks, took charge and won four and drew one of the five games that followed.
The 40-year-old is back at Sabener Strasse. Bayern have not confirmed when he will return to the dugout, but Uli Hoeneß has said he will be back on the bench after the break, which makes the home game with Köln on Friday 20 November the obvious fixture.
When he does return, fans will see the outfit they already know. Kompany usually wears loose clothing, most often all black with white trainers, very baggy trousers, a T-shirt under an oversized shirt or hoodie, a puffer jacket and a black cap, with a thick grey fleece replacing the black on cold winter nights.
At the Champions League tie in Madrid in April, he kept a black Y-3 cap on throughout and wore an olive green Adidas parka with two chest cargo pockets, loose dark trousers and white Superstars.
Jurgen Klopp has now taken a dig at Kompany twice in three weeks. The first jibe was tactical. Watching from the Allianz Arena stands as a DAZN guest during the 2-2 draw with Arsenal on 21 October, the German coach admitted he still had not worked out what Bayern do without the ball. Kompany answered with “Next question” at the post-match press conference.
The second jibe was about clothes. At an Adidas farewell event at the company’s headquarters in Herzogenaurach on Wednesday 11 November, Klopp, 59, sat alongside Florian Wirtz, Jonathan Tah and Adidas chief executive Björn Gulden. The event marked the end of a partnership of more than 70 years between the brand and the German national team, with Nike taking over in 2027.
Asked which Adidas collaboration he liked best, Klopp named the luxury label Gucci, then said it reminded him of the Y-3 clothes Kompany always wears, and that he would “look like a clown” in them. He added that Gucci was funny but not for him, and told Adidas to keep going without forgetting older customers.
Jürgen Klopp asked which Adidas brand collaboration he likes: “Gucci. That’s just like those Y-3 things Vincent Kompany always wears. If I put them on, I’d look like a clown. And when I see Gucci, I think: Funny – but not for me. Keep going like that, but don’t forget the older people”
Klopp’s own signature piece is far plainer, with a black Adidas trucker cap printed with the slogan Einer von 83 Millionen and a Trefoil in black, red and gold, which was due to go on sale on 10 November.
The brand he joked about is not a basic tracksuit label. Y-3 launched in 2002 as a collaboration between Adidas and the Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto, with the Y standing for Yohji and the 3 for Adidas’s three stripes.
It blends sportswear with avant-garde design and favours black, oversized cuts and relaxed shapes, such as a coach jacketwith elasticated cuffs and hem. The loose, dark layering Kompany favours matches that approach, although not every piece he wears comes from Y-3, and the Madrid parka was Adidas’s own.
No public reply from Kompany has surfaced. He has previously laughed off online chatter about his touchline “aura”, telling reporters he had no idea what was being said.
Should Bayern Munich care what Klopp says about Kompany? On the clothes, no, and the jibe deserves no attention at all. Kompany has turned a black cap and baggy trousers into a recognisable look, and the label he wears belongs to the company that makes Bayern’s own kits.
A rival coach calling it clownish does Y-3 more good than harm. The tactical remark in October is a different matter. Bayern have drawn four of their last nine matches in all competitions, including 3-3 at Viking and 2-2 with Arsenal, and they have conceded nine league goals in nine games, two more than Dortmund.
Klopp may be teasing, but the hybrid marking system leaves gaps that opponents are finding. Danks deserves credit for four wins and a draw, yet Kompany returns to eight games in four weeks before the winter break on 19 December.
He should spend that time fixing the defence, because only goal difference separates Bayern from Dortmund, and that gap closes quickly if sides like Augsburg and Viking keep scoring against them.
There is a history behind the banter too. Klopp coached Dortmund from 2008 to 2015, won two Bundesliga titles there and lost the 2013 Champions League final to Bayern at Wembley, so he has spent a large part of his career needling the Munich club from the other side.
Dortmund are level with Bayern on points now, which gives his jokes an edge a neutral coach would not have. Nothing in his remarks suggests more than teasing, and the joke landed in front of Tah, the one man at that Adidas event who plays for Kompany’s club.
