An international manager has admitted he is absolutely delighted he can call on a player from Manchester City again, ahead of Euro 2024.
City finished their campaign with a defeat at the weekend, losing to Manchester United in the FA Cup final.
Pep Guardiola‘s side lost for the first time in 2024, with Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo grabbing the goals for United, and the brilliant Jeremy Doku scoring a late consolation for City.
It was a poor performance as a collective from City, with some pointing to the Premier League title celebrations as a possible reason for the drop-off. But Kyle Walker strongly rejected those suggestions after the game.
A number of players struggled to have an influence for City, one being Kevin De Bruyne.
De Bruyne hasn’t quite looked the same explosive player he did before his hamstring injury. But his numbers have still been very good, and Belgium manager Domenico Tedesco has been speaking about the City man after naming his Belgium squad for Euro 2024…
Domenico Tedesco delighted to finally have Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne back with Belgium
De Bruyne will now only have a couple of weeks to rest up before he goes again.
The 32-year-old will be flying out to Germany for Euro 2024 with Belgium, whom he will captain.
De Bruyne, who will earn his 100th cap with his next appearance for his country, has obviously not had much involvement with Belgium in recent times due to the hamstring injury he sustained against Burnley.
The last time he featured for his country was against Germany back in March 2023.
Key to Belgium going deep in the Euro 2024 this summer will be the form of £400,000-a-week maestro De Bruyne. And Tedesco could not hide his delight about having him back, when asked about the player in a press conference earlier today.
He said (via Belgium FA’s official YouTube channel): “I’m very happy that Kevin is back. It’s one year, but I think he will not take that much time to be back again and inside all our structures.
“It’s important and we’re all happy he’s back.
“About leading, we know him, he’s not a guy who is speaking a lot. But you can lead in different ways. By performing and pushing in a positive way. Of course, we will have some exchanges, some talks about the topics we want to see.
A final chance at international success for De Bruyne
It will be interesting to see how De Bruyne gets on with Belgium this summer.
Quite possibly, this will be De Bruyne’s final international tournament. He is about to turn 33, so he will be 35 when the next World Cup rolls around.
It’s not completely uncommon for 35-year-olds to go to World Cups, but De Bruyne’s style of play may make it difficult for him to make the next one.
Belgium have a lot of talented players, including De Bruyne’s Manchester City teammate Jeremy Doku. They are not expected to win in Germany, but they could well be dark horses.
De Bruyne – branded ‘phenomenal’ by Jamie Carragher earlier this month – will be determined to take his country as far as possible, and hopefully we see him putting on masterclasses just as he does regularly for City. Except if Belgium face England, of course.
