Unser Kopf arbeitet wahrscheinlich viel zu viel.
The incident has also sparked a broad debate about the pressures football coaches face in their work.
"Our minds probably work too much," said Leipzig coach Martin Demichelis over the weekend. "The stress in the Bundesliga or generally in our business is certainly very high," confirmed his Dortmund counterpart Niko Kovac. "Who looks after the coach?" he asked a legitimate question and immediately provided the answer: "If the coach doesn't look after himself, or his family doesn't, then I think it's a bit more difficult."
Veh: "You have a thousand thoughts"
Former Bundesliga coach Armin Veh (including HSV, Stuttgart, Frankfurt) perhaps touched upon one of the most crucial points: Illnesses hardly have a place in the coaching business. "You can't afford not to be there," he said on "Sky90".
As a coach, you're always under pressure, you have "a thousand thoughts, you have responsibility. And if you play internationally, you have to prepare yourself again and again every three days because in the end you're the one who stands there and explains things," he explained. "You rebuild the team, you build up the player, you have the staff and so on. And you have that every three days, and then at some point you're exhausted," he emphasized.
Du willst dir danach auch nicht irgendwo etwas nachreden lassen, dass du irgendwas falsch gemacht hast.
Of course, football coaches also get sick sometimes, said Veh. But they rarely allow themselves breaks. For the reasons mentioned, they are still present, Veh emphasized.
Matthäus offers insights
You want to "be perfect, make no mistakes," Lothar Matthäus underlined on the same show. "You also don't want anyone to talk behind your back afterwards, saying you did something wrong: the tactics, fielded the wrong player, or perhaps didn't analyze the opponent as thoroughly as necessary. And these thoughts particularly run through your head at night when you wake up and nothing is happening around you," he reflected on his own time as a coach.
He often "woke up at four in the morning" and "eventually had coffee around seven," and in the time between, he only thought about football.
Kompany's 18-hour day
Kompany, too, hardly spared himself in his work. Last year, his father told "Bild" that his son "usually works 18 hours a day." He is one of the first to arrive at the Bayern campus in the morning and the last to leave.
Against this backdrop, Union Berlin coach Martin Lustrinelli warned in the "Tagesspiegel" that it's important to take conscious breaks. "This is a signal. Sometimes you need a break," said the coach of the "Iron Ones". He himself does this: "Sometimes I need ten minutes, half an hour, two hours," he explained. It's important "to find the necessary peace and balance." Two things Kompany can make good use of now - and hopefully finds.
He wished his coaching colleague all the best and, in the same sentence, summed up what many in football are probably thinking right now: "We miss him."
