Toby Alderweireld's Bold FIFA President Pick: Vincent Kompany

Toby Alderweireld has put a bold name on the table for one of football’s most powerful jobs – and it is not a career administrator.

The former Belgium and Tottenham defender says Bayern Munich boss Vincent Kompany would be his ideal future president of FIFA, arguing the world game needs a leader shaped by the dressing room, not the boardroom.

Alderweireld’s surprise pick

Asked by Hajper who he would like to see running football’s global governing body, Alderweireld did not hesitate.

“Who would be my pick to be the next president of FIFA? Vincent Kompany,” he said, before explaining that the idea of his old international team-mate as a coach once felt far-fetched.

“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.”

It is a striking endorsement, but it comes from someone who knows Kompany as well as almost anyone. The pair shared Belgium’s back line 47 times, anchoring a golden generation that carried their country to the latter stages of major tournaments and helped redefine expectations around the national team.

Kompany’s path from captain to candidate

Kompany is only 40, yet his CV already spans two elite careers.

On the pitch, he became a serial winner, lifting trophies in both England and Belgium and captaining Manchester City through their rise as a modern powerhouse. Off it, he has moved rapidly into top-level management.

Now in charge of Bayern – Die Roten – he has already collected back-to-back Bundesliga titles, stamping his authority on one of Europe’s most demanding clubs. For Alderweireld, that blend of tactical intelligence, leadership and steel is exactly what the sport’s highest office needs.

He insists the ambition to shape football’s future was always there with Kompany, even if the route was unclear during their playing days. The mission, as Alderweireld sees it, has simply shifted from organising defences to defending the game itself.

A shot at Infantino and the “businessmen”

Alderweireld’s backing for Kompany lands at a time of growing scrutiny on current FIFA president Gianni Infantino, whose background is rooted in administration at UEFA rather than professional playing experience.

For the Belgian, that distinction matters.

“It’s very important that the FIFA president is someone who played the game and knows the game,” he said. He argued that former players bring a dual perspective that executives cannot match.

“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.

“We’re football fans too. We played the game. We know how it is. What it is to be a player and a fan.”

The point is clear: football, in his eyes, is being shaped too often by those who see it as a product rather than a culture.

Tradition versus spectacle

Alderweireld’s frustration crystallises around what he sees as creeping overkill in the modern game. He picked out proposals like extended half-time shows at the World Cup as a red line.

“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.”

For him, that is where a president with Kompany’s background would make a difference – someone who understands the rhythm of a match, the sanctity of the dressing room, the importance of keeping the sport’s core untouched by spectacle for spectacle’s sake.

“The most beautiful thing about the sport is its traditions,” Alderweireld said. New ideas have their place, he accepts, but only if they do not trample on what made football special in the first place.

“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.”

Kompany is busy chasing titles in Munich. But if the game continues to tilt towards entertainment over essence, voices like Alderweireld’s will only grow louder – and the idea of a former centre-back sitting in FIFA’s top seat may not sound so outlandish after all.