Dante is excited by a special new development at Bayern

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Dante will coach Bayern Munich’s reserves in future. Ahead of the start of the season, he spoke about his move, his role and Vincent Kompany’s influence.

Eleven years after leaving as a player, Dante returned to Bayern Munich this summer as a coach. The 42-year-old Brazilian has taken charge of the reserve team and will also oversee the Under-19s in the UEFA Youth League.

On his return to Munich, he ran into some familiar faces: club patron Uli Hoeneß, of course, and board member for sport Max Eberl, with whom he once worked at Borussia Mönchengladbach. A lot has changed at the club's Säbener Straße site and work is still going on there. But Dante also spotted a much more fundamental shift in the club's direction, and he traces it back to first-team coach Vincent Kompany.

"He is keen to develop young players and let them play," Dante said in a small press round on Thursday, which was also attended by SPOX . "That's not how I knew Bayern. Back then, the young players did not have as many opportunities as they do now under Vinnie."

The former centre-back played for Bayern Munich between 2012 and 2015. He won the treble under Jupp Heynckes in 2013, then added more titles under Pep Guardiola. Bayern were hugely successful in that spell, but the club's own youngsters paid the price. Hardly any talents made the jump into the first team. Under Kompany, that has changed completely: he first helped Lennart Karl make his breakthrough and last season gave first-team debuts to nine more talents.

For Dante, keeping that trend going is part of the job: "My main goal here is to develop the lads." League position in the fourth-tier Regionalliga Bayern matters less. "I hope I do good work with the young players and that Vinnie lets even more of them play." At present, the most promising candidates are considered to include centre-backs Filip Pavic and Cassiano Kiala, holding midfielder Erblin Osmani and the two attacking players Maycon Cardozo and Wisdom Mike. 

On the tactical side, Dante said he is allowed with his team to "do what I want". In day-to-day training, though, he wants to prepare his players specifically for sessions with the first team by using drills similar to Kompany's. He already has "a good connection" with Kompany, Dante stressed. "We always speak on the phone and I've met him two or three times." Most recently, that happened on Tuesday, when Kompany and Dante jointly led a large trial training session attended by more than 60 players from various age groups.