When Kevin De Bruyne was playing at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho, no one could have imagined that the teenager would turn out to be this good. Chelsea didn’t even consider him to be in the challenge for a first-team spot and offloaded him to Bundesliga club Wolfsburg.
The evolution of De Bruyne began from Wolfsburg. He set the Bundesliga on fire with his control and vision in the midfield. Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City took a risk to bring him back to the Premier League and it has worked to perfection. It seems that Guardiola-De Bruyne match was made in heaven.
De Bruyne has thrived in the Premier League under Guardiola. He is the best-attacking midfielder in the league by quite some distance and maybe he is the best in the world too. He has 16 assists this season before football was halted by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Arsenal legend Thierry Henry provided a record 20 assists during 2002-03 campaign. De Bruyne has now jokingly warned Henry that he is coming for the assist record this year.
De Bruyne told The Athletic’s Ornstein & Chapman podcast: “To be honest, I feel Like I’m on 17 – I know they took one away from me at Arsenal [referencing Raheem Sterling’s goal in a 3-0 December win at Arsenal that came courtesy of his slightly deflected cross]. I don’t know why they did it, I still don’t understand it.”
“I always joked with Henry in the national team, even at Vincent Kompany’s testimonial this year. I saw him and said ‘I’m coming for you this year’. To have 16 assists is really nice and speaks really well for a creative player. But if it doesn’t happen we still go on.”
“When you get something [a record] it fills you with pride because I had it in Germany and it’s nice to see you broke some records.”
De Bruyne further talked about the PFA award which has been mysteriously awarded to other players in each of City’s 4 title-winning seasons in recent times.
He said: “I don’ think a lot of people [at City] feel under-appreciated, to be honest. There’s been chances, obviously, when some of us could have won the award but you don’t know what the voters are thinking about football.”
“Two years ago I could have won it but I understand why Mo Salah won it also. Maybe this year is a chance for me to win, I don’t know. I think I’ve got a nice chance but there are some other players who have had great seasons.”
“I’m not really occupied about why or why not. Everyone has a different view. That’s the nice thing about football, nobody thinks the same way and there are different playing styles and views.”
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