Kevin De Bruyne has confirmed he will leave Manchester City at the end of the 2024/25 season.
De Bruyne will depart the Etihad as one of the club's greatest-ever players, and certainly the greatest of the Pep Guardiola era. One of the best footballers of his generation, De Bruyne is now a frequent member of all-time Premier League XIs as a six-time Premier League winner who ranks second in the competition's history for assists.
The brilliant Belgian has finished as the top assist-maker in four seasons and has twice won PFA Player of the Year. While his 2019/20 campaign of 13 goals and 20 assists - where he became only the second player after Thierry Henry to record 20 assists in a single season - was imperious, his 2021 win was arguably more impressive in that he only started 23 games, missing nearly half the campaign through injury and still being considered the league's best player by his peers.
Injuries have been prevalent in De Bruyne's Premier League career, with the playmaker starting 30 league games in just three of his 10 campaigns, but despite his fitness woes that have particularly hampered De Bruyne in recent years, the 33-year-old has appeared in each of the last five FIFPro World XIs and is the only player to have done so.
Signed for a club-record £54m back in 2015, eyebrows were raised at Manchester City spending so much money on a player widely dubbed on these shores as little more than a Chelsea reject. But so good was De Bruyne in his 18 months in Germany, where he scored 10 goals and recorded 20 assists and went on to win Bundesliga Player of the Year in his only full season, the club had little qualms about the fee that he's more than repaid in his decade at the Etihad.
Attentions now turn to De Bruyne's next club. With no real reports of a move to another European club, a move to MLS or Saudi Arabia looked the most likely, with new MLS side San Diego initially rumoured with a move. No deal as been agreed as of yet, though, and if finances are the primary stumbling block, a move to Saudi Arabia may be most likely.
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