Eberl tells Bayern to 'protect Kompany from himself' after hospital collapse: 'The body will scream'

Max Eberl's response to Vincent Kompany's collapse at Bayern Munich carries a weight that few inside the game can claim. The club's Board Member for Sport has lived through his own forced exit from football for health reasons — and on Saturday, as Kompany lay in hospital, Eberl made clear that the Belgian coach will be given every second he needs.

Speaking after Kompany was admitted to hospital, Eberl repeatedly stressed that the head coach would be given as much time as necessary to recover. The 52-year-old explicitly refused to speculate about the medical cause of Friday's incident, noting that further examinations were still required.

But Eberl did reflect more broadly on the danger of pushing on when the body is signalling that something is wrong.

"If you don't listen to the quietest signals your body sends you, eventually your body will scream," Eberl said at Bayern's pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday's Bundesliga showdown against Freiburg. "And that's what has happened now."

Describing Kompany as an "incredible worker," Eberl suggested one of Bayern's chief responsibilities during the recovery would be to guard the coach against his own drive to return.

"It will be a big task for us to protect him from himself to a certain extent," Eberl said.

A personal echo

Those remarks resonate with Eberl's own history. In January 2022, Eberl abruptly resigned as Borussia Mönchengladbach sporting director after more than two decades with the club as a player and executive. An emotional Eberl told reporters at the time that he was "drained" and "tired" and no longer possessed the energy required to perform the role to the standard he expected of himself — a decision that came despite having extended his Gladbach contract only 13 months earlier.

Rather than immediately seeking another position, he stepped away from professional football entirely. Later that year, Eberl spoke in greater detail about the psychological crisis that had led to his departure, revealing that his recovery involved travelling, seeking professional help, reflecting, and keeping a personal journal. "In August, I felt like football was firing me up again," he said at the time.

In a 2024 interview with 11Freunde, Eberl described suffering burnout and reaching a point at which he could no longer live or work as he previously had. "I realised that somewhere along the way I had lost myself, that I was merely fulfilling a role," Eberl recalled. "I no longer had the strength to get to the bottom of things and papered over the problems with more and more work — even though my body was screaming."

The wording provides a striking parallel to his comments following Kompany's collapse. More than two years after being forced to listen to those warning signs himself, Eberl is now helping determine how Bayern respond when their head coach's health demands that football be put aside.

Health over football

"The good news is that he's stable," Eberl said on Saturday. "It shows once again that health is the most important thing in life — not football. The most important thing is that the cause is found and that he gets healthy, that he can recover in peace and only comes back when he is fit."

Eberl said he had spoken with both Kompany and his wife and stressed that the club would not impose an artificial timetable on the 40-year-old's return. Kompany is expected to remain in hospital for several days while further examinations are completed, and Eberl indicated Bayern are preparing for an absence lasting weeks rather than days.

There is no suggestion that Kompany's current medical situation and the psychological crisis Eberl experienced in 2022 are directly comparable. What Eberl does understand first-hand, however, is the point at which the demands of professional football have to become secondary to the health of the individual performing the job. His message on Saturday was therefore unusually simple: Bayern will continue without Kompany for however long is necessary. Football can wait.