Kevin de Bruyne left Chelsea in 2014 while José Mourinho was in charge (Photos:. / TalkSPORT)
José Mourinho says he recognized Kevin de Bruyne’s potential while he was Chelsea manager and did not want him to leave, insisting that it was the Belgium star who made his way out of Stamford Bridge.
The Blues signed 18-year-old De Bruyne from Genk in 2012, but he only made nine first-team appearances before joining German Wolfsburg.
De Bruyne quickly established himself as a Bundesliga star and soon headed to Manchester City, where he would win three Premier League titles, five EFL Cups, the FA Cup, and a variety of individual accolades.
Given De Bruyne’s development over the past decade, his departure from Stamford Bridge doesn’t reflect well on Chelsea or Mourinho, but the former Blues boss has downplayed his involvement in the move.
De Bruyne is currently with the Belgium team at Euro 2020 and helped the Red Devils top Group B with three wins out of three.
Mourinho told talkSPORT: ‘Kevin is an incredible player, at the moment he is one of the best players in the world, there is no doubt about that. My story with Kevin was fun and, in the end, it worked out really well for him, of course.
“I came to Chelsea in my second term and we are going to Asia to play some games and train, and Kevin was supposed to come with us and then go on loan after the tour.
De Bruyne spent two years at Stamford Bridge but failed to make an impact (Image:.)
‘He impressed me so much that I made the decision,’ I don’t want this boy to go on loan, I want him to stay ‘, and in our first game of the Premier League season he started against Hull City, in the second game we are going to Old trafford [and didn’t play].
After this he came up to me and said, ‘I want to play every game, I want to play every minute’ and the kid who was supposed to go on loan wasn’t even happy to stay and grow up there.
“So he pushed hard to leave, he wanted to go to Germany, where he was previously on loan and was very happy to develop in the Bundesliga, and his decision was to leave.
“He put a lot of pressure on that and it worked really well for him. In the end, Chelsea sold it and the story is there.
“The quality of the player is absolutely amazing, he’s in the top five in the world, and when he was supposed to go on loan and I made the decision to let him stay, I saw those qualities.
“I made the decision that I didn’t want him to lend, I wanted him to stay.”
“A lot of pressure was put on to leave.”
Josà © Mourinho on # BEL’s Kevin De Bruyne and how he came to leave Chelsea. pic.twitter.com/PQ9lfOj841
– talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) June 22, 2021
“He did not have the experience and maturity that he has now, but his feet and his vision were already there.”
Mourinho spent three years at Chelsea during his first season at Stamford Bridge, winning back-to-back Premier League and FA Cup titles.
The Portuguese coach says De Bruyne “was not an easy boy” to handle and was “very clear” in his decision to leave Chelsea.
Mourinho added: ‘He was not an easy child, in the sense that it was not so easy to communicate with him, he was very clear about it and it was very difficult to change’ [his mind].
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He knew very well what he wanted and was not prepared to have that season at Chelsea where there were many good players on the same team, he did not have that, let’s say, patience not to start every game or be on the bench.
“I was not prepared for that, he was coming from a season in Germany where he played basically every minute of every game, and he was happy to accept a situation like that.
Sometimes we coaches make mistakes and we don’t see this player as having the potential to do this in the future, but that was not the case for Kevin.
‘I saw that he had the potential to do it, but he was just a kid who had a very clear mind. He knew exactly what he wanted.
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