Long before Kevin De Bruyne became one of the greatest players in Manchester City’s history, his English football loyalties were firmly on the other side of what would later become a fierce rivalry. In old footage from a youth interview in 2002, the young Belgian names Liverpool as his favourite club and Michael Owen as his favourite player. His ambition was to play for Liverpool one day.
It was not simply a childhood comment later taken out of context. De Bruyne confirmed the story again in 2019. Members of his family living in England supported Liverpool, so he followed the club too. Michael Owen was a particular favourite because De Bruyne, then a small and quick young attacker himself, could identify with the Liverpool striker.
De Bruyne: a real Manchester City legend
Football eventually took him in a very different direction. After spells with Genk, Chelsea, Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg, De Bruyne joined Manchester City in 2015 — the club that would go on to become Liverpool’s major rival in several unforgettable Premier League title races. At City, the Belgian developed into one of the defining players of his generation.
The trophy cabinet makes the twist even better. During his decade in Manchester, De Bruyne helped City win six Premier League titles and the Champions League, among numerous other honours. Instead of eventually wearing the red shirt he dreamed about as a boy, he spent ten years helping to paint Manchester blue — sometimes at Liverpool’s expense.
That old interview has therefore become a wonderful little piece of football history. The young Kevin De Bruyne telling a camera that he would love to play for Liverpool could hardly have imagined that he would one day become a legend of the club that spent years battling the Reds for English supremacy. Sometimes childhood dreams simply take a very different route.