Toby Alderweireld Backs Vincent Kompany for FIFA President

Toby Alderweireld has made his choice clear. If football ever wants a president who truly speaks the game’s language, he believes it should turn to Vincent Kompany.

The former Belgium and Tottenham defender has thrown his weight behind the Bayern Munich manager as his dream candidate to one day lead FIFA, arguing that the sport’s global body needs a figure shaped by the dressing room, not the boardroom.

Kompany is only 40 and deep in the pressure cooker at Bayern, where he has already delivered back-to-back Bundesliga titles. Before that, he captained Manchester City through an era of dominance and lifted trophies in both England and Belgium. His CV glitters. For Alderweireld, though, it’s the substance behind the silverware that matters.

The pair shared Belgium’s back line 47 times, anchoring a golden generation. From that vantage point, Alderweireld insists Kompany always saw the game in wider terms.

Speaking to Hajper, he recalled a team-mate who was already thinking beyond the next match.

"Who would be my pick to be the next president of FIFA? Vincent Kompany," Alderweireld said. "I never thought before that he wanted to become a manager. He always talked about going on a mission to change football but maybe it’s his mission to protect football. He would be my president, always."

That word – protect – cuts to the heart of his argument. As criticism continues to swirl around current FIFA president Gianni Infantino, whose path ran through UEFA’s administrative corridors rather than a professional playing career, Alderweireld is blunt: football’s guardians should be football people.

"It’s very important that the FIFA president is someone who played the game and knows the game," he said. "We've all been a fan. Then we've become a football player. We know both sides. When I was a child, I went to all the away games on the bus. We're not just people who made good money out of playing in the Premier League and Champions League."

He paints a picture of players as lifelong supporters, not detached stars. People who queued for tickets, who travelled to away ends, who lived the rituals before they ever earned a wage from the sport.

"We’re football fans too. We played the game. We know how it is. What it is to be a player and a fan," he continued.

Then came the example that clearly rankles: talk of a 20‑minute show at half-time during the World Cup. For Alderweireld, that kind of idea exposes the gap between commercial thinking and football reality.

"The one thing that's very important is that the person who's doing the talking should be a football guy because look at the World Cup. A 20-minute show at half-time? That’s where you need someone who knows football to say no."

That, in his eyes, is where someone like Kompany steps in. A former captain used to saying no in the toughest moments. A manager now balancing modern demands with the essence of the sport.

Alderweireld is not railing against change. He accepts that innovation has its place. But he draws a firm line around what must not be touched.

"The most beautiful thing about the sport is its traditions. New things have their place too but we need to protect the traditions as well and that’s why you need football players, football people who have been around the game, to keep the businessmen in check."

In a football world increasingly shaped by broadcast slots, sponsorship activations and global expansion plans, his message is simple: let the game be led by those who have felt it under their boots. And if that path ever opens at FIFA, Alderweireld already has a captain in mind.