The news that this will be the final season for Kevin De Bruyne as a Manchester City player does not come as a shock. But it is still a source of sadness. The sight of De Bruyne at his very best was among the most thrilling for any fan of football.
The praise lavished on him will be as great as it is deserved. City are sure to honour him in these coming months. Opposition supporters may well do the same as he embarks on his farewell tour. Most will appreciate that he is among the Premier League’s greats.
Infamously, not everyone saw it coming. “I just don’t see this,” said Sky Sports‘ own Paul Merson when City signed him. “I do not see £50m for this player.” Phil Thompson agreed. “Absolutely bonkers. He is a good player, but is he a great player? Come on.”
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Pep Guardiola reacts to Kevin De Bruyne’s news that he will leave Manchester City
But De Bruyne had already become accustomed to proving people wrong. It was only thanks to Belgium’s late developers programme that his talent was nurtured. Speaking to the country’s former academy chief Eric Abrams about it, he acknowledged as much.
“If you came to the training sessions,” Abrams told Sky Sports, “I guarantee that you would say, ‘Okay, the guy has something but for me he is not outstanding.’ We had some of our clubs who had sent some of these late developers away from their academies.”
Once De Bruyne grew into his body, the talent shone through. A title winner with Genk, that earned him a move to Chelsea and it was only his impatience for a key role that took him to Wolfsburg on loan, where he was named the Bundesliga player of the year.
At City, the world saw the best of him, a complete player, a force of nature. Technically adept with both feet, he scored a third of his Premier League goals with his supposedly weaker left foot – just think of that rocket of a shot into the top corner against Chelsea.
It was one of 29 goals from outside the area. No player over the past 15 years has scored more Premier League goals from beyond the penalty box. Teams defended deep against City but with De Bruyne around, protecting that box was no protection at all.
If David Silva was the more natural fit for the style that Guardiola had famous at Barcelona, De Bruyne reimagined it for the Premier League, fusing that controlled game with the physicality that he brought to football at his peak, overpowering opponents too.
At a slower tempo, his creativity could get City out of trouble. But when the game would speed up, he was really in his element, bestriding games, a box-to-box player for many years. And while he was capable of popping up anywhere, he had his favourite zones.
De Bruyne’s heat map and passing sonar since signing for Manchester City
The half space has become a familiar term now, referring to those channels from which angled crosses can be delivered into the box without the need to beat the full-back. No need for a player to get in behind the defence when De Bruyne can make the ball do it.
It became the De Bruyne zone, the speed and curl on those crosses – more like passes, in truth – undoing many a defence. “It is getting to a point now where you cannot allow De Bruyne into this space on the right,” Gary Neville told Sky Sports. “He is that good.”
But knowing about it and stopping it were two different things and De Bruyne continued to create. The numbers are staggering. Of course, he tops the assist charts since signing for Manchester City, a consequence of his longevity as well as his consistent brilliance.
And yet, the underlying figures are even more illuminating. The amount of big chances that he created in the Premier League for City numbers at 194 – which is 65 more than anyone else. Only four players attempted even half as many through balls in that time.
Even under a coach for whom keeping possession was a mantra, De Bruyne has remained a risk taker, someone willing to lose the ball to make magic happen. Guardiola embraced it because it won games for his team – and the trophies followed.
That first Premier League title under Guardiola would not have been won without him. More recently, his role has been more peripheral. Back then, he was relentless. He not only featured in all but one Premier League game that season, he started 36 of them.
City’s player of the year on four occasions, and in the Premier League team of the year more times than that, he was so often the driving force. Champions League finals were not kind on him, twice forced from the field early, but he claimed the big prize in 2023.
Since then, his powers have waned a little, De Bruyne himself admitting that time waits for no one. The skill remains. Indeed, even this season, no player in the Premier League creates a chance as regularly as he does when he is on the pitch. Ever the conjuror.
Even in this final season De Bruyne is creating a chance more often than anyone else
But it is the lung-busting runs of De Bruyne, coupled with that quality, that will endure longest in the memory. He could bully with beauty, handle the dirty side of the game but also strike a ball as cleanly as anyone ever has. He departs as a Premier League legend.
