International Career
Vincent Kompany made his international debut aged just 17 for Belgium in February 2004 against France, as one of the youngest players ever. The Belgian Federation called up Kompany to the 2008 Olympics. Initially, Hamburg decided not to let him go as the Olympics was not an official FIFA tournament. After a dispute, Hamburg decided to release him under the condition that he returned after Belgium's first two group games. At the Beijing Olympics, Belgium's first game was against Brazil where he was sent off in a 1–0 loss, and as a consequence his tournament was over as the red card would rule him out of Belgium's second group game. Due to the turn of events, Kompany decided against returning to Germany in hope of playing the last group game to help his country qualify for the knockout stages. Hamburg maintained their stance that he had to return, and the Belgian FA decided to release him. He later came on as a substitute in the opening game for Hamburg against Bayern Munich. The rocky relationship with Hamburg and Kompany is said to be a major factor in Kompany transferring to Manchester City. In November 2009, Kompany fell out with the Belgium manager Dick Advocaat. On the Monday before the friendly match with Qatar on 18 November 2009 Kompany received permission to attend the funeral of his grandmother as long as he returned to the team hotel before 6 pm that evening. As it happened, he did not return until nearly midnight. Furious, Advocaat removed him from the squad altogether, although on 24 February 2010 he was recalled to the Belgium squad by Advocaat for the friendly against Croatia. On 19 May 2010, Kompany scored a 90th minute goal to give Belgium a 2–1 win over Bulgaria in a friendly. On 10 November 2011, a day before the friendly against Romania, Georges Leekens named Vincent Kompany as the Belgium captain, succeeding Thomas Vermaelen.
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