Chelsea’s most exciting new player, has actually been a Chelsea player for over a year and a half!
The young Belgian, Kevin De Bruyne, has been at Chelsea since January 2012, but has yet to represent the club in a competitive match.
Signing on from Belgian club KRC Genk for £7 million, and loaned back for the rest of the season, he spent last season on loan at the Bundesliga club Werder Bremen, gaining valuable first team experience.
He was a standout in an otherwise poor Werder Bremen side last season, providing ten goals and nine assists in 33 appearances as well as picking up seven man of the match awards. A brief look at his stats also reveals that he had the third most key passes in the Bundesliga, as well as averaging the fourth most crosses (accurate) per game.
However, this season he is back at Chelsea, and Jose Mourinho intends to utilise the Belgian international, even knocking back interest from last years Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund, according to The Telegraph. The returning Chelsea boss has spoken very highly of the player’s potential, and his performances so far.
“He’s showing to me in training that he is going to be a key man on the pitch.”
De Bruyne is a naturally gifted footballer, and looks in his element with the ball at his feet, showing incredible footwork and trickery. Very much an attack-minded midfield player, his movement and vision can create chances out of nothing, and his delivery in the final third is exceptionally efficient.
His defensive contributions, however, have been questioned, along with his tackling ability but De Bruyne is never going to be that box-to-box ball winning midfielder, his style of play is all about going forward, and he does it incredibly well.
Very much a part of the new golden generation of Belgian footballers coming through at the moment, De Bruyne is a particularly entertaining player to watch and I have no doubt that he will play a big part in the Chelsea campaign this season. Provided the injury he picked up on Sunday playing against Malaysia XI in Kuala Lumpur isn’t too serious.
Not convinced? Take a look at his highlights from last season and then imagine how good he will be with a world class Chelsea team around him.
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