Kevin De Bruyne came to Manchester City as their record signing and will leave as their greatest ever player. “Every story comes to an end,” he said, announcing his summer departure. A coda to the last chapter has long seemed obvious. Manchester, he said, will forever be in his family’s hearts and a version of him will surely forever be around the Etihad Stadium. De Bruyne is likely to be immortalised in bronze, celebrated in a statue.
Opponents can admire him there, safe in the knowledge their defence will not be unlocked by an act of extraordinary brilliance. As Pep Guardiolareacted to De Bruyne’s decision, the City manager underlined how productive an artist has been. “I read today that he's been involved in 280 goals and assists,” said Guardiola.
Even more. In a decade, De Bruyne has scored 106 times for City, made a further 176 goals. He predated Guardiola by a year but no one has ever made more goals for the Catalan’s teams than the Belgian, with 161.
De Bruyne will go as arguably the Premier League’s finest ever creator. He equalled Thierry Henry’s record of 20 in a season and had four campaigns with at least 16. He is second in the all-time assist charts to Ryan Giggs, but the Welshman played a further 12 seasons in the division.
De Bruyne reached a century of assists in 56 fewer games than anyone else. He was dynamic on the counter-attack, incisive in the inside-right channel. He did not need to beat a man or reach the byline. He simply bent it like Beckham, whipping in passes and crosses, corners and free kicks, with a blend of pace, accuracy and menace that seemed to render them undefendable.
As Guardiola pointed out, De Bruyne allied remarkably quality with consistency, until injury intervened. The 2023 Champions League final, which brought the crowning glory of the treble, was the beginning of the end, the hamstring injury he aggravated in Istanbul the first of a series of absences.
Yet that campaign produced 29 assists, a number that is every bit as much of an outlier as Erling Haaland’s 52 goals. And if the two are connected – and, much as everyone else at City will miss De Bruyne, the Norwegian will most of all, given the brilliance of his supply line – the Belgian was arguably the decisive player in winning the Premier League title, given his colossal performances in the two games against Arsenal.
