Bayern Munich have finally secured a new head coach after a protracted search for Thomas Tuchel's replacement.
Vincent Kompany was announced as the club's next manager on May 29, 2024, just 10 days after the end of a Premier League season in which his Burnley side were relegated.
The Bavarian giants failed to win the domestic title for the first time since the 2011/12 season as Bayer Leverkusen stormed to a famous success under Xabi Alonso.
Alonso was one of the main candidates to take over from Tuchel at the Allianz Arena, but he committed his immediate future to Leverkusen, where he intends to stay for another season. And he's not the only coach to have turned down the chance to take charge of the UEFA Champions League semifinalists.
According to Sport Bild, Bayern failed in a bid to appoint Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner, who has done excellent work at the Premier League club since taking charge in February. The report claimed Palace wanted €100 million from Bayern to buy out the manager's contract.
That was after Ralf Rangnick, the former Manchester United interim boss and current Austria head coach, stated he will not be going to Bayern. Julian Nagelsmann also rejected the chance to return to his old club, and an attempt to convince Tuchel to stay ended in failure.
Eventually, Kompany was hired after Bayern agreed to pay a reported compensation fee in the region of €12 million for the former Manchester City captain.
The Sporting News looks back at the candidates he beat to take the job.
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Bayern Munich next manager: Kompany hired
After numerous attempts to appoint a new manager, Bayern finally agreed a deal to appoint Kompany on a three-year deal.
Kompany had just been relegated after finishing 19th in the Premier League with the Clarets but perhaps the Bavarian hierarchy paid more attention to his season in the Championship as they stormed to promotion in 2022/23.
The Guardian reported on May 22 that the German giants had been in discussions with Burnley's ownership about a compensation package as they look to get this deal over the line. That fee is said to have been in the region of €12 million.
Who else was linked with the Bayern Munich job?
Hansi Flick
Hansi Flick, Bayern head coach from 2019 to 2021, was once the favourite to take the job.
Flick won six trophies in 2020 as Bayern won the treble of Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and UEFA Champions League titles in a single season for the second time in their history. They also lifted the DFL-Supercup, the UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup that year.
He departed at the end of 2020/21 to take the Germany national team role, which didn't quite go according to plan: he became the first man to be sacked from that job after they went out of the 2022 World Cup at the group stage and lost 4-1 to Japan in September 2023. He was replaced by Julian Nagelsmann, who had also succeeded him at Bayern.
Given he has been unattached since leaving the national team, Flick was a fairly obvious choice for Bayern given their difficulty in tempting others to take the role on. He has now taken over at Barcelona after the departure of Xavi.
Roberto De Zerbi
Italian manager Roberto De Zerbi was long among the favourites to take over at FC Bayern.
De Zerbi took charge of Brighton & Hove Albion in September 2022, where he has made a significant impact at the Amex Stadium, leading the team to their first European qualification with a seventh-place finish last season.
Despite losing players such as Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo to Liverpool and Chelsea in last summer's transfer window, Brighton initially sustained their challenge for a top-six finish this season. However, as injuries mounted and the toll of balancing domestic and European football was felt, they fell away. Then, shortly before their final match of the season against Manchester United, Brighton confirmed De Zerbi would be leaving the club after an agreement between both parties that he would seek a new job elsewhere.
In terms of tacticians pushing the boundaries of what is possible for an attacking football team, there are few better out there right now.
It could be suggested that De Zerbi's tendency to play "in the red" all the time makes him ill-suited to a post where trophies are expected. Additionally, De Zerbi perhaps feels like more of a fit to succeed Pep Guardiola if he leaves at the end of his current Manchester City contract in 2025.
De Zerbi's narrow backline to break first and second line press
— Younes (@younes_aw) March 16, 2024
Full-backs inside (4 line): Attract, overload the centre and unoccupy spaces between the lines to exploit
A different approach to likes of Guardiola (inverted fullback) or Klopp (high fullback) but same intentions pic.twitter.com/E6PImFpCf8
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Jurgen Klopp
After a memorable tenure on Merseyside, Klopp left Liverpool at the end of the 2023/24 Premier League campaign.
His high-energy style and success in the top flight made him a logical choice to succeed Tuchel, but it never seemed likely to happen.
Klopp's experience managing in Germany as Borussia Dortmund boss also put him in good stead, although coaching BVB's sworn enemies might not sit well with a figure still adored at Signal Iduna Park.
Also, part of his reason for leaving Liverpool was due to "running out of energy". He said he wants to take at least one season off to recuperate before diving back into elite European football.
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Zinedine Zidane
French football icon Zinedine Zidane has been without a coaching gig since 2021.
After finishing his career at Real Madrid as a player, he remained with the club and worked his way up to the head coach role.
His career win rate of 62.5% is impressive and has seen him linked with many top teams.
After three years out of a job, he is still waiting.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has not managed since departing Manchester United in 2021.
Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg reported the Bavarian club was monitoring the Norwegian as an interim solution.
This was before the announcement of Tuchel's departure, though, and it's unclear whether Bayern ever truly considered the 50-year-old as a longer-term option.
Jose Mourinho
When any top club has a managerial opening, you can expect Jose Mourinho to be considered.
'The Special One' has managed 10 different clubs in his eventful career but is yet to ply his trade in Germany.
With a résumé that includes 26 major trophies and two Champions League titles, the Bayern board could have viewed him as an attractive option to re-install a winning culture. Again, though, it was a move that never really felt likely.
Xabi Alonso
Bayern have a habit of poaching talent from other Bundesliga clubs, so it makes sense they looked at the man in charge of the league's hottest team.
Bayer Leverkusen enjoyed a stunning campaign under Xabi Alonso, winning the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal without losing a match. Their sole defeat came in the final of the Europa League against Atalanta.
Alonso was linked with a move to Liverpool to replace Klopp, having played at Anfield between 2004 and 2009. The former Spain midfielder finished his career at Bayern, who he joined during Pep Guardiola's tenure.
The 42-year-old's coaching philosophy is centred around inviting opposition pressure and then exploiting the resulting spaces.
Having only joined Leverkusen in 2022, Alonso has proved he can develop a system and achieve results in a relatively short period.
But he confirmed that he will stay with Leverkusen, at least for one more season.
🔴⚫️ Xabi Alonso: “My job at Bayer is not over. I want to help the club, help the players to develop, the board is great… it’s all fantastic here”.
“I’m still young coach but I think this is the best decision for my future. I took my time and I’m sure about that”. pic.twitter.com/o7vZyQ872Q — Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) March 29, 2024
Ralf Rangnick
Rangnick had great success in the Bundesliga leading the sporting side of the Red Bull sports venture, and he is credited with inspiring many of the best modern German coaches, so Bayern's interest made sense in that regard.
However, he struggled as interim Manchester United manager and chose not to take up the planned consultancy role at the club as he instead chose to take the job as the head coach of Austria. He has since committed his future to that role beyond Euro 2024, although he stressed in a statement that his decision should not be viewed as a "rejection" of Bayern.
It had been reported in late April that Bayern were confident Rangnick would accept the club's offer.
Julian Nagelsmann
If there was any sense of embarrassment within the Bayern hierarchy at attempting to reappoint a coach they fired a year ago, that was turned up to 11 when Nagelsmann turned them down.
The 36-year-old replaced Hansi Flick in the Germany job — just as he had at Bayern in 2021 — and, with his contract due to expire after the Euros on home soil in June and July this year, there was a belief he could be tempted back to the Aliianz Arena. However, he chose instead to sign a new contract with the national team.
Oliver Glasner
Okay, Glasner didn't exactly reject Bayern — the negotiations never got as far as the Austrian speaking with the German club — but it's another failed pursuit for those in Munich to handle.
Sport Bild reported on May 13 that Palace wanted a €100 million compensation package for Glasner, which Bayern were, rather unsurprisingly, not willing to pay.