Vincent Kompany to receive Bavaria’s top sports honour after anti-racism speech

Vincent Kompany will receive a prestigious personal award from Bavaria’s prime minister in recognition of his work against racism and exclusion, as well as his achievements with Bayern Munich.

The 40-year-old Bayern manager is due to collect the honour from Markus Soder at the 2026 Bavarian Sports Awards ceremony in Munich on Saturday.

Kompany will attend the event shortly after Bayern’s Bundesliga match against Augsburg, when he and 23-year-old Nathaniel Brown are expected to leave the stadium quickly. Two limousines will reportedly be waiting to take them directly to BMW Welt, the venue for the ceremony.

Brown will be officially recognised as the winner of the Outstanding Young Athlete award. According to German newspaper BILD, Kompany will also be honoured at the event.

The award presented to the Belgian manager is the personal prize of the Bavarian prime minister. While his success at Bayern Munich is part of the reason for the recognition, BILD reports that Soder particularly values Kompany’s firm stance against racism and discrimination.

Kompany attracted international attention in February after delivering a 12-minute speech during a Bayern Munich news conference. He spoke strongly in support of human dignity and made clear that racism had no place either in sport or in wider society.

His comments followed racist abuse directed at Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior during a Champions League match against Benfica.

They also addressed the reaction of Jose Mourinho, who was Benfica manager at the time and is now manager of Real Madrid. Mourinho was viewed by some as having downplayed the incident after suggesting that Vinicius shared responsibility because his celebration had provoked the supporters.

Kompany’s intervention was widely noted for going beyond the immediate incident and underlining the wider responsibility of football to oppose racist abuse.

The award therefore recognises both his record with Bayern Munich and his public position on an issue that extends beyond the pitch. Soder will present it to Kompany as a leading figure in sport and society.

The ceremony will mean a particularly tight schedule for the Bayern manager and Brown, with both expected to travel from the stadium immediately after the Bundesliga fixture before joining the awards event at BMW Welt.