NewzBundesliga: Let’s take a look at your roots. Your parents used to tell you, “You have to work twice as hard.” What do those words mean to you today? Vincent Kompany: "Specifically, my mother told us that we had to work twice as hard.
My mother, to be precise, was blonde with blue eyes. She said it as a concerned mum who was working for the Office of Employment. It wasn't something that she made up.
It was the statistics and the numbers that she got through her work. "They showed that with a different colour of skin or a different name, you just have to work twice as hard, even with the same degree. But it's something she instilled in us.
If you work twice as hard, the reality of life is that you become twice as good. That's an important aspect not to forget. Yes, we work hard, but we work hard to become better as well.
We try to keep this in the family." Bundesliga: You faced a lot of adversity growing up. How did that shape you as a person? I think for every individual, when you grow up, your environment shapes you, but it's not just the negativity, it's also the positive people around you.
I remember the bad experiences, but I think with age you remember more of the good things you had as well. "One of the privileges I had that many of my friends didn't have was that I had two parents for a very long time. We didn't have money, but our parents did everything for their children.
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