Kevin De Bruyne, Once Abandoned, then a Superstar

Given that De Bruyne has one of the most sad and dramatic life stories of any football player, it is even more astonishing that he has managed to achieve football stardom.

His adoptive family abandoned him right away, he was almost expelled from his academy, and just when he was about to get his big break, his fiancée cheated on him with one of his teammates, leaving him a mental wreck. He was ultimately written off by the media, but he persisted in using his rage as motivation to rise to greater heights. Despite having attained success, however, life continued to deal him tragedies one after another.

This is Kevin De Bruyne's remarkable tale.

His parents made him play with only his weak foot in the garden because he kept smashing the pots there. Now that I look back, I made the right choice.

He was already getting into trouble at the age of eight. Two years after joining his neighborhood club KVV Drogen, he was already attempting to advance in his profession.

He only informed his coach that "The training sessions are better at Gent" before joining his new team.

Even though he wasn't a problem and was curiously quiet, he had a strong character, was ambitious, and was excessively honest. Nevertheless, things at Gent didn't get any easier.

And it appears that scared off his teammates as well as his coaches, who would have worked tirelessly to make him "normal." But despite their best efforts, they seldom found success.

He once gripped the goalpost till he felt sick because he was so frustrated that one of them was usually on his back, but it was already dark by that point.

He is stubborn as a mule, but I can understand now that that's what made him so amazing, the same coach would later concede, bowing in submission.

Nevertheless, when word of his incredible potential spread, Genk, who recognized the young man's discontent, persuaded him to come across the country on his own to play for them.

But this was the time when De Bruyne suffered his first significant heartbreak.

De Bruyne and two of his colleagues moved in with this new family after spending a year living in a boarding house. Genk had made a specific arrangement for young players to be hosted by a foster family rather than on their property.

De Bruyne, though, had a difficult previous year. He was already socially awkward in his hometown, and now that he was far away and speaking with an odd accent, well, as he put it, "they were the loneliest years I'll ever live."

But now that he was a part of this new family, he felt secure, he wasn't as alone, and it helped him fit in. He thought everything had gone smoothly after a year because he was "doing well in school, doing well in football, no fights, no problems."

His foster family waved back as he said goodbye before summer break and promised to see him again the following year. However, when he got home, his mother was sobbing when he went in the door. According to him, what she said "shaped the rest of his life" after taking a glance at him.

They didn't want you there, the foster family said when they contacted...It's about who you are; they claim they can't interact with you because you're too silent. You're simply too challenging.

Because no one had spoken to him, De Bruyne became fixated on these words. He tried his best not to cause any trouble while waiting for the next training session because he was so intent on making it. However, as soon as his mother finished explaining what had happened, he simply picked up a football off the floor and ran outside, where he spent hours kicking it against a fence. The five words "it's about who you are, it's about who you are" kept playing in his head.

The club had been contacted and they now thought he was a problem, so much so that they weren't willing to pay for another foster family to take care of him. Instead, he would be sent to another boarding house, but this one was special—it was a boarding house for troubled kids. That wasn't even the worst part—he had been abandoned by these people who were family to him.

He relaxed once the agony subsided and told himself aloud, "Everything is going to be OK. I'm going to be on the first team in two months.

I won't be returning home a failure, whatever happens.

Regardless of circumstances.

He was almost 16 years old at this point and, although having participated in a few games for the B team, he considered himself to be "a nobody"...

However, that year when the summer ended, he landed in Genk and... I'll only cite him once: I was filled with so much fire. It was crazy. I clearly recall the instant when everything turned around. On a Friday night, we performed. I commenced from the bench. I just went nuts when I came on in the second half. One goal: to make them stop wanting you.

Too quiet; two goals.

Three goals are too much.

They no longer desire you after four goals.

Five goals, in light of who you are.

It had been such an undeniable performance that De Bruyne was immediately promoted to the first team. It had been one month and twenty-something days; he had gotten to the first team faster than he had stated he would.

When they arrived, the club began acting strangely and claimed they wanted to pay the foster family to have him return to live with them.

De Bruyne simply replied, "You threw me in the trash and now that I'm doing good you want me back?" before the foster parents could even finish trying to dig themselves out of a hole. They even arrived and told him it had all been a misunderstanding and that obviously they would like him to stay. Immediately after they had a chance to speak, he turned away from them.

Finally, when he addressed this in an interview, he admitted that he probably ought to have expressed his gratitude to them because it was their deeds that inspired him to achieve greatness. Indeed, the years that followed were exceptional.

He didn't play much at the first. He began playing in the second, and by the third, he had completely taken over the league. Getting 5 goals and helping 16 others get goals... That might sound strange, but it's true; in the Belgian League, the portion of the points acquired from the first stage is rounded down by half a point in case of a tie in points, and that's exactly what transpired to help Genk win their third league title in their history.

He made his debut for the Belgian national team that same year, and everyone there was immediately impressed. Vincent Kompany even remarked that by the end of their first training session together, the players were exchanging comments like "did you see that? He's only 19 and already the team's best player.

In addition, he legally might have played for Burundi instead because his mother was born there in Africa. I'm curious why he didn't. Do not, though, for a moment believe that De Bruyne has changed because of his success.

His time at Genk was filled with odd circumstances.

Then, in 2012, he became so frustrated with his team's poor performances that he used the post-match press conference to say, "I'm ashamed of my teammates and I suggest to those who don't have a desire to play, just leave"... First, at the age of 19, he felt the need to confront the team's star player Elyaniv Barda to complain that he didn't work hard enough in training.

But in the end, De Bruyne would be the one to move on, joining Chelsea, who were so impressed by his exploits that they wanted to use him as a substitute for Frank Lampard. However, he would first move on loan to Werder Bremen. He rapidly established himself as one of the most promising young players in the Bundesliga. De Bruyne was unassuming, but in a way that made it much more spectacular because, as Cruyff often remarked, "Playing simple football is the hardest thing there is," even though it is simple. De Bruyne managed 10 goals and 9 assists as Bremen was on the verge of being demoted, and he casually accepted the title of Young Player of the Year. Now it was time to concentrate and rule the Premier League.

De Bruyne, though, had trouble focusing that season.

Because it so happened that year that his girlfriend had an extramarital affair with Thibaut Courtois, a former teammate from the academy and an international player. Although, to be fair, she would make sure to say that she did it as retaliation because allegedly, De Bruyne had cheated on her months earlier, she wasn't even polite about it when she confirmed the entire scandal to the press and made sure to say that Courtois had given her more in one night than De Bruyne had given her in three.

De Bruyne would be traded from Chelsea after just half a season due to his poor form at the exact moment he needed to be doing the best and Mourinho's criticism of him. At that point, he had only been able to record one assist and no goals.

Back in the Bundesliga, Wolfsburg was his next stop. De Bruyne, though, used his anger to further his game. Even though Courtois joined Chelsea after he left, in what seemed to be a slight poetic injustice, De Bruyne still managed to maintain composure and be the bigger man, allowing Courtois to continue competing for the Belgian national team after that coach gave De Bruyne the authority to decide whether his behavior should be disciplined.

De Bruyne led Belgium to their first international tournament in 12 years that same year by scoring the most goals in the qualifying round. De Bruyne used the next season as a blank slate to create a masterpiece. He scored 16 goals, including two against Bayern in a game that was the team's first loss in nearly a year. He also had an absurd 27 assists, 21 of which came in the league, which was a Bundesliga record at the time. He led Wolfsburg to the cup title and second place, just behind Bayern, and, to cap it all off, he was named to the Ballon d'Or.

If you're wondering how he recovered so well from having his heart shattered, it was because he met his future bride. His friend had to use his phone to write that initial text because he felt so uneasy following years of media abuse, but now... De Bruyne claims that she altered his life and that he would never have been able to come out of his shell without her.

By the end of the year, they were already expecting their first child. Unfortunately, a serious scare occurred when his wife woke up one morning bleeding, and De Bruyne realized there was much more to life than football. Though everyone turned out okay in the end, he had once more experienced a life-changing moment.

From that point forward, he played because he was madly in love with the game rather than because he had a fire within of him that needed to be fed.

And a year after his 76-million-euro transfer to Manchester City, which made him the league's most expensive player ever depending on the currency, one man arrived and forever transformed his life,

“Guardiola, Pep”.

De Bruyne has been denigrated as a failure and a Chelsea reject ever since his return to the league, but Guardiola just sat him down and said, "Kevin, listen.

A player in the top five on the globe is possible.

If De Bruyne had previously had trouble with authoritarian coaches, this was the ideal strategy; there was no need to get fired up; instead, De Bruyne wanted to show Pep Guardiola that he was right, and with each subsequent season, the notion that he was nothing more than a Chelsea flop began to crumble.

With 16 assists during his second season under Pep, De Bruyne led City to become the first team to reach 100 points in history. Over the summer, De Bruyne's form only continued to improve as he finally achieved his dream of restoring glory to the Belgian national team, teaming up with Hazard for one of their most successful-ever tournaments, even scoring the game-winning goal to defeat Brazil in the quarterfinals, before losing to France and defeating England to win the bronze medal, Belgium's highest-ever finish at the World Cup.

Guardiola's assertions were gradually coming to pass; the Ballon D'Or rankings now ranked him among the top 10 players in the world. Injury continued to plague him in 2019, and the day after the birth of his second kid, De Bruyne tore a ligament in his knee, forcing him to wear a brace. He dialed his wife, who saw a tear in his eye... He sobbed as he told her, "I'm not going to be able to even dress myself, you're going to have three babies at home now." She was equally alarmed and concerned. She remarked, "You didn't even cry at our wedding, you didn't cry when the kids were born, and one was literally born yesterday," after he had calmed down. Later, thinking back on that statement, he would remark, "Weddings and funerals? Even though I'm a rock, if you take away my football, I'm done. Fear not, though; once he returned to shape, he turned away. The 19/20 season became a pillar of his career, and even though City did not win the title, De Bruyne tied the great Thierry Henry for the league's all-time assist record with 20 assists and was crowned the league's best player. He probably would have been chosen as one of the top 5 players in the world if the Ballon D'Or had existed in 2020. We'll have to wait, I suppose.

Since then, he has only improved, and just a few weeks ago, he scored and assisted against Real Madrid to no avail as City will once again miss the Champions League final. This is the only thing stopping De Bruyne from competing head-to-head with pretty much any midfielder who has ever played the game; as Guardiola once said, "Messi sits on a table all by himself, but De Bruyne, he can certainly sit at the table beside it."