Dimitar Berbatov has named Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne as having the best first touch in the Premier League.
The former striker made a combined total of 229 Premier League appearances during his playing career for Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham.
Having featured alongside numerous top-quality players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez to name just a couple, the Bulgarian has now shared his thoughts on one of the Premier League’s current stars.
Berbatov hails De Bruyne’s first touch
Speaking in a recent quickfire interview shared on Prime Video Sport’s TikTok channel, Berbatov had this to say when asked which current Premier League player he feels has the best first touch.
He said: “Must be De Bruyne, in my opinion.”
This answer may have been a surprise to some considering how other City players such as Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva have previously shown how effective and impressive their first touches are and how they can control the ball in tight areas on the pitch.
Also, with the Belgian miscontrolling the ball 42 times across the previous Premier League campaign, the second-highest in the City squad, this doesn’t strengthen De Bruyne’s case of having the best first touch in the league.
However, the fact that the 32-year-old ended up scoring 10 goals and providing 31 assists in 49 appearances across all competitions this season shows that De Bruyne’s main attribute is how he moves the ball around the pitch rather than being the best at controlling it with his first touch.
Overall, while it’s nice to hear Berbatov speak so highly of the City star, we feel that in terms of having the best first touch in the league, there are others that should be mentioned before De Bruyne in this instance.
Moving forward, with the midfielder being out injured since the first Premier League game of the season, it’ll be interesting to see how his performances, and his first touch, will fare once he gets back to full fitness and out on the pitch again.
