The first is that at eight he turns to his father and says he wants to leave his club, KVV Drongen, because the training sessions at Ghent, another local club, are better.
A number of stories shape the mythology around him. He is both famously shy and famously outspoken. He floats off to the fridge, takes out slices of white Hovis, makes himself a mustard sandwich, heats up green soup and starts eating. He glides through his house like a ghost: if he hadn’t shaken my hand and introduced himself, I probably wouldn’t have registered his presence. He is wearing a brown tracksuit, has a wispy gingerish beard and bears more than a passing resemblance to his cartoon compatriot Tintin. We chat and drink, and it’s only after a while that I realise De Bruyne is also now in the kitchen. Toys spill out of the playroom and De Bruyne’s office obviously doubled up as the home-schoolroom in the pandemic (one wall is plastered with spelling tests).ĭe Bruyne is nowhere to be seen, so Lacroix introduces me to Coco, the three children and her mother. Coco, the white-grey cat, is so perfectly coordinated, you wonder whether she came with the furnishings. The house is everything you’d expect: huge driveway, extension the size of a small hotel, artworks galore, carpets like quicksand. She apologises for still being in her bathrobe, shows me in and makes coffee. M ichèle Lacroix, AKA Mrs De Bruyne, greets me at the door. “Away from football, it’s all about family,” he says. We never see him out getting into trouble. Earlier this month, the game Football Manager 2023 ranked him the greatest player in the world.ĭe Bruyne doesn’t run with the football pack. In September, he was named the world’s best passer in the video game Fifa 23. In 2020, De Bruyne became the first City men’s player to win the prestigious PFA Player of the Year, and won it again the following season. And while goal-scoring isn’t his main thing (he prefers to assist), last season, when he scored four goals against Wolves, commentator Alistair Mann quivered: “Kevin, stop it! I’m running out of superlatives for you!” Though he plays in the centre, he sets up goals by overlapping on the wing to put in crosses of such pace, swerve and accuracy that they are impossible to defend. Often he will start a move by winning the ball and running with it in the same movement. Now he’s out there hoping to prove himself wrong.Īt his best on the pitch, virtually everything is channelled through him.
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