Er came, saw and won. When Roberto Martínez, the Belgian national coach, came on for him in the second half of the group game against Denmark, Belgium, one of the favorites to win the title, was 1-0 down against furious Danes. The champion of hearts, fighting with full speed ahead for her comrade Christian Eriksen, who had recovered from cardiac arrest, seemed on the best way to a surprise victory against the world number one. But then Kevin De Bruyne stepped onto his stage, recovered from a facial fracture that he suffered in the Champions League final in a crash with Antonio Rüdiger, the German central defender of Chelsea FC.
With the playmaker, game accelerator and game decision maker from the small Flemish town of Drongen, everything changed on Thursday a week ago. Belgium now dominated a breathtaking duel, equalized by Romelu Lukaku, one of the world’s best attackers, staged by De Bruyne, and won 2-1 with the red-haired leader of the Red Devils’ first tournament goal.
The low shot with the left in the left corner of the goal reflected De Bruyne’s extra qualities in an exemplary manner: It stood for the speed, precision and dynamism of the man who is constantly on the move with the number 7 on his back. Belgium’s comeback was De Bruynes Comeback, which could pave the way for the first European title in Belgian football history.
“The best playmaker in the world”
First, however, Kevin De Bruyne and his teammates have to solve the demanding task of defeating the defending champions in their round of 16 duel with Portugal on Sunday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Football Championship, on ARD and MagentaTV) in red-hot Seville. The team, which has matured over the years, seems to be able to do this with its over-30 team, also because its leader, who immensely enriched the Bundesliga years ago in the jerseys of SV Werder Bremen and VfL Wolfsburg, is capable of doing so.
His Spanish association trainer Martínez says: “He is the best playmaker in the world and has the personality of a genius.” Pep Guardiola, his Spanish club trainer at ManCity, assesses the 1.81 meter long and at first glance rather inconspicuous designer and equally exuberant Executor: “Kevin is the complete player.” A world footballer and team player who still lacks an individual award for his overall work. Probably also because he lacks the aura of the star.
The man who wants to further expand his record of one goal and two assists in this tournament does not appear with the majesty and claim of a football director that others have to serve. He prefers to plow himself and give his teammates the opportunity to bathe in the celebrations. De Bruyne is just as happy about an exact goal preparation as he is about one of his goals that are worth seeing. With him, the result of his mobile creativity is always derived from his flowing movement, which gives him a feel for space and time. Kevin De Bruyne lives Playstation football. He once said of himself: “I feel completely free on the pitch. It’s like an artist. Here I can live out my creativity and paint pictures on the lawn. “
Images that are remembered by one of the most demanding professionals, who is constantly working on the perfection of his architectural art in the countryside, constructing mobiles with speed, depth of field and accuracy. In retrospect, it is extremely astonishing that the Portuguese start coach José Mourinho once pissed him off at Chelsea, so that, fortunately for the Bundesliga, De Bruyne was able to mature athletically in Germany, where he won the DFB Cup with Wolfsburg in 2015 with a final victory over his then Wish club Borussia Dortmund conquered and was then voted footballer of the year.
The fact that he has now become an international star appears to be an inevitable consequence of his excess talent and understanding of the game. De Bruyne, who was fixated on football all his life, has shown the flag in all midfield positions and also in attack and has acquired a know-how that has made him unique. “Nobody else,” says Martínez, “plays such precise passes at such a fast pace. It increases the speed of the entire game. “
De Bruyne has had years of apprenticeship in which he also had to deal with major disappointments. For example, when Mourinho complimented him out of the Chelsea FC squad or his host family in Genk, where the talent grew up in the academy of the Koninklijke Racing Club in the east of his home country, no longer wanted to accommodate the introverted and sometimes closed-off youngster. That hit the equally critical and self-critical young professional very much. In the meantime, those who know him better attribute a dry sense of humor to him, but also an honesty in dealings that can occasionally hurt.
However, the striving for success is not considered to be entranced to lonely heights. He’s too down-to-earth for that and loves his game beyond measure. Fans worldwide enjoy watching this formative force in world football, which serves the game and its teams and is at the same time the master of the ball and the leader of its teams. With De Bruyne, the Belgian national team, as you saw in the game against Denmark, is a mega-size of international football; without him only a good, but not outstanding team. That is why anything is possible for Belgium at this European Championship if De Bruyne stays healthy and his ideas fall on fertile ground.
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