Kevin De Bruyne made me doubt my own eyes - City are losing a legend
Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne will say goodbye to the club after a phenomenal 10 years at the Etihad
My time covering Manchester City in any form only started when Manuel Pellegrini took the reins, and only full-time when Pep Guardiola took over, so I always felt like an awkward latecomer to the David Silva party. Having not been there for the magical beginning at Blackpool or seen him weave the Blues to their first trophies since the takeover, it felt like a battle to fully embrace the man worshipped by fans as Merlin.
He was an unbelievable talent of course, but by the time I was watching properly there was a redhead that was attracting my attention. As a fellow ginger who needs about two minutes of running to go red as a beetroot in the face for two hours, De Bruyne was the everyman's footballer who made the game look stupidly simple.
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Article continues belowIn an age where fitness mattered more and more, the Belgian looked like he could be trundling about on a park but could do things that nobody else in the world could on any surface. After years of wondering if my eyes really had seen what had just happened on the pitch, it doesn't sound like exaggeration to ask if there will ever be a player like him seen again.
The potential was there even in his debut season when the team disappointed during Pellegrini's final year, with fans instantly taking to a player dubbed the £54m flop in one national and derided as another expensive waste from a club with more money than sense. Once Guardiola took over, De Bruyne took his game to another galaxy.
The 7-2 win over Stoke in October 2017 stands out as a brilliant example of the way De Bruyne simply made your jaw drop and took your breath away, from the no-look reverse pass for Leroy Sane for his first assist of the day to his third, stealing the ball with a lung-busting interception before rolling a ball of anyone's dreams through to the back post where Sane smashed home.
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Arguably the best City team ever seen, undeniably the best Premier League team ever seen that season, all orchestrated by a player who played football on another level.
As Guardiola said on Friday, it has been the consistency that has been astonishing - producing gobsmacking excellence every three days for year after year. City have a squad stacked with superstars and plenty have delivered world-class performances, yet De Bruyne's still stand above them.
Injuries and time have caught up with his legs, but only after he sacrificed his body by playing through a hamstring injury for two months to see City to the Treble in 2023. This wasn't coasting either, but outstanding performances in games as important as the 4-1 league win over Arsenal before his hamstring finally gave way minutes into the Champions League final in Istanbul.
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At the final whistle, an emotional Guardiola embraced him, saying: "We did it. We did it. We did it. Seven years of fighting, we did it Kev. We did it. Now we have it."
From next season, City won't have De Bruyne - except they will. He may no longer be seen rampaging on the Etihad pitch but some form of permanent recognition of his contributions will be up as soon as it can be chiselled, and his performances will live long in the memory and in the record books.
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