CNN Exclusive – Vincent Kompany On Paris Attacks And Terror In Belgium

...“We're Fighting The Wrong People, People That We Have Lost Touch With…”

By Damilare Ogunmowo

CNN’s Amanda Davies spoke exclusively to Manchester City and Belgium captain Vincent Kompany.

In the first part of the interview, the star midfielder talked extensively about his personal response to the Paris attacks, and the problems in Molenbeek – a suburb of Brussels close to where he grew up. He told Davies that he believed terror in Belgium was ‘predictable’, and that politicians had ‘failed’ the people of Molenbeek and Brussels.

Link to video:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/sports/2015/11/26/vincent-kompany-belgium-terror-interview-davies.cnn.html

Sections of transcript:
On ‘fighting the wrong people’

KOMPANY: All we hear is declaration of wars and wars against whom? It's a war against their own people.

People say like we're going to fight in Syria against those who have gone to Syria but, you know, ultimately, you're only fighting your own people.

If British we're going to some country in Africa and fighting against Britain, it'll still be your people that you're fighting against whether they're in Africa or whether they're somewhere else.

And that's the same with us at the moment we're fighting the wrong people, people that we have lost touch with and people that we have not been able to influence is enough in our lives to make them understand what is so beautiful about our democracy, about our way of living, you know.

On his reaction to the attacks:
KOMPANY: It's very upsetting. You know, I didn't sleep for three days after probably the attacks but as well as information came through that it was related to my city. Now, for me, it was hurtful. I love my city. I love the people…like most of the people, I think I was shocked.

On Molenbeek
DAVIES: As somebody from Brussels, from very close to Molenbeek, to see it described as a hotbed of jihadist activity, a jihadi heaven, a crucible of terror, how does that make you feel?

KOMPANY: No, I mean there's a sentiment of revolt toward those kind of, you know, allegations. I think quite clearly something has gone wrong, terribly wrong.

I think that most of it has happened without a lot of us making the right analysis. If you look toward Brussels, it's a city with a lot of job -- with a lot of youth unemployment, I think over 30 percent in general. But it's a very wealthy city.

A lot of the people that live in this wealthy city are actually the poor ones…and to say that it's a hotbed of terrorism, I think it goes further than this. Politically, a lot of mistakes have happened over the years. I think the way the entire city's structure is favorable for a lot of people to, you know, fall out of the system very simply. I mean we have a city of a million people divided in 19 boroughs with 19 mayors and six police zones.

​T​hose people who've perpetrated those attacks, the reason why it hurt me so much is because they're not, you know, people of a religious fraction, there are just revolutionaries, people that have been able to fall off the grid, that have not come in contact with anything else but the people that have been able to indoctrinate them. And that has been allowed by the mistakes that we have made in the way we have structured our cities.

On whether the attacks were ‘inevitable’

DAVIES: Did you ever get the sense when you were growing up, given the large immigrant community given the unemployment, given the social economic problems you've talked about, was what has happened inevitable?

KOMPANY: Yeah. There's a sense of me that really believe they was predictable. I've said, I've seen it more as angle towards a system that was non-inclusive. And I've been really lucky, I was probably blessed with talent but with the desire as well to succeed in football. But many as well, thanks to my parents, they're well-educated, although we live in a difficult area. They were well-educated and they give all of us -- all of the children an opportunity to succeed in life but when the parents have not got this level of education, that’s when local systems become so important.

And think it was inevitable because, you know, only use to see politicians in our neighbourhood once every six years when they needed to come for vote. And then every now and then, something would pop up out of the ground. And someone would cut the red ribbon to say, "I would done this for the community." But really have struggled to see a real concern…a genuine desire to be a part of making those neighbourhoods, those places involved.

And this is what I like about football sometimes, a lot of this that you've got all the colours and all the cultures in one team but, ultimately, whether you are blue or red, is what's going to decide who you going to support.

If a black guy on the red team is bullying someone on your team that's white, or any of the colour of the world, you'll defend the guy in your team. It's as simple as that.

On whether he would return to live in Brussels with his children

"Life is what it is -- you can't shield them from everything. I want my kids to go and see the world and understand they are privileged, but it doesn't mean they don't have the right to speak up and see what is happening.”

"Brussels will always be this city of diversity, of wealth of culture, and I encourage everyone to speak and say how much they love the city, and to just now start the positive talking."