Assist king De Bruyne – How his unrivalled creativity has led Manchester City’s Champions League charge

​

28 Champions League assists 

When Kevin De Bruyne left Chelsea to sign for Wolfsburg for just €22 million back in 2013, few could have predicted he would return to the Premier League two years later and become one of the division’s greatest ever players. And perhaps the greatest playmaker the league has ever seen. That’s exactly what the Belgian has done. Since signing for Manchester City in 2015, the midfielder has been the catalyst for the Sky Blues winning trophy after trophy. His creativity is seemingly unrivalled. His vision undoubtedly unsurpassable. De Bruyne has delivered match after match, season after season, and he turns up on the big occasions. 

Since his arrival in Manchester in August 2015, no player in Europe’s top five league has more assists than De Bruyne. He has won five Premier League titles, two FA Cups, five League Cups and last season’s Champions League in Man City’s most successful ever era. The 32 year old has also twice won the PFA player of the year award. The Champions League was the trophy that eluded Pep Guardiola’s Man City for so long, but De Bruyne has been at the epicentre of the club’s drive for European glory. The long wait came to an end when the club lifted the trophy for the very first time after beating Inter Milan in the final last June. In a repeat of last year’s semi-final they now take on 14-time winners Real Madrid again in this season’s quarter-final, and go to the Bernabeu for the first leg this Tuesday – a ground where De Bruyne scored a rocket last season.

For many people, winning the Champions League is the pinnacle of success in club football. Only 23 clubs have ever won the European Cup. Only 14 sides have won it since the re-format to the Champions League in 1992. Since the Abu Dhabi United Group took over Man City in 2008, one of the ultimate goals has been to win the Champions League. There has been unparalleled domestic success for Man City. But until last season, the Champions League always evaded them. However, each year they have been making great strides to Champions League glory. Their charge for this accolade has often been led by the immense performances of De Bruyne.

Since De Bruyne joined Man City, only Neymar has more assists in the Champions League. It seems likely that if Guardiola’s team go far in this year’s competition, which many expect they will, then De Bruyne will pass the Brazilian this season on that list. De Bruyne is delivering in the biggest games too. Across last season’s semi-final legs against Real Madrid, which Man City won 5-1 on aggregate, the creative midfielder scored and registered two assists. In last season’s Champions League winning campaign, De Bruyne registered seven assists in 10 games. Four of those assists came in the knockout games. It was a crying shame for football enthusiasts around the world (that didn’t support Inter Milan or maybe Manchester United) when De Bruyne was forced to limp off in the final after just 36 minutes with a hamstring injury.

De Bruyne has been a huge miss for Man City this season, missing the majority of the campaign so far with that same hamstring problem which was aggravated on the opening day against Burnley back in August. Nevertheless, Man City’s creative spark is back. He has been in frightening form since his return against Huddersfield in the FA Cup last month. In just 888 minutes of football De Bruyne has scored four goals and registered 13 assists. That’s a direct goal involvement every 52 minutes, which is simply staggering. It may be a small sample size, but every football fan has seen enough of De Bruyne to know he’s capable of delivering similar numbers for the run-in this season. The 32-year-old is sure to be a key component if Man City are to go on to win back-to-back Champions League titles.

Homepage