The Belgian midfielder, who has been one of the stand-out players in the Premier League this season, had his first experience of English ...
The Belgian midfielder, who has been one of the stand-out players in the Premier League this season, had his first experience of English football at Stamford Bridge.
Joining the Blues in 2012 from Genk when Roberto Di Matteo was in charge, De Bruyne was loaned out to Werder Bremen before returning to find Mourinho in the hot-seat.
He made just nine league appearances under the now-Manchester United manager, however, and was sold to Wolfsburg in 2014. De Bruyne has since developed into one of the best players in Europe at the Etihad and is in contention for this season’s PFA Player of the Year award.
Asked to describe his relationship with Mourinho while they were both at Chelsea, De Bruyne told BBC’s Premier League Show: ‘I would say distant. I’m not really someone who speaks a lot with coaches.
‘I think if a coach wants to speak with you then you just do it. He’s the boss. You can be good with each other but still there’s distance between a coach and a player.
‘I only spoke with him twice, that’s when I wanted to leave to go to Dortmund in the beginning of the summer, and then the second meeting I just said, “for me it’s better to go, I want to play football”.’
De Bruyne was by far the best performer in the Premier League during the first-half of the season but he faces competition to win the PFA Player of the Year from Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian superstar is closing in on 40 goals in all competitions for Liverpool.
‘Can’t we have two [winners]? I think they both deserve it,’ Steven Gerrard said when asked who should bag the award. ‘Kevin De Bruyne was the top man, by far, earlier in the season.
There would certainly be no complaints from me if he got it. ‘But in Salah’s favour, he’s come strong at the right time. They’re both in the form of their lives and it’s very difficult to separate them.’
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