Belgium and Manchester City’s 31-year-old midfield maestro truly started his now impressive career as a Chelsea reject, having to work his way back to the top via the Bundesliga, and is now considered one of the finest players in the world.
How much do you know about him though? Today we’ll be taking a look into the life and times of Kevin de Bruyne and helping you become more familiar with a player that seems to be improving each season. Let’s get into it.
| Born | June 28th, 1991 |
| Height | 1.81cm (5′ 11″) |
| Weight | 89kg (150lbs) |
| Family | Mother: Anna De Bruyne, Father: Herwig De Bruyne Sister: Stephanie De Bruyne Kids: Mason Milian, Suri, Rome De Bruyne |
Career
Kevin de Bruyne was born near Ghent in the Flanders region of Belgium and is a native Dutch speaker. The Belgian also speaks French, English, and German. De Bruyne began his senior career with Genk in his homeland of Belgium after impressing in the youth ranks with his local teams.
After an impressive start to life in the Belgian Pro-league, the midfielder stayed with Genk for four seasons before sealing his big-money move to Chelsea in 2012. It would be a disappointing stay in London for De Bruyne though and he left the club after just two years for German side Wolfsburg.
Soon his fortunes turned though, with the Belgian becoming the star we all know and love during his time in the Bundesliga. In just a single season with Wolfsburg, he became a fan favorite and made 52 appearances, scoring 13 goals.
This fine form earned him a move back to the Premier League in 2015 and he hasn’t looked back since. Now the most vital component of Manchester City’s team, he is at the very core of their style and has registered countless important goal contributions for the English giants.
De Bruyne has also played just shy of 100 games for his country, with them being in the hunt for silverware for many years now.
Height and Weight
- Height: 1.81cm (5′ 11″)
- Weight: 89kg (150lbs)
Midfielders are not usually known for being the tallest of players on the pitch, with legends such as Iniesta and Paul Scholes using their relative lack of height to their advantage throughout their careers.
De Bruyne falls into this category to some extent, with him coming in at just 181cm tall (this equates to 5 foot 11 inches for those in the UK). For a player like De Bruyne, height is not of great importance, with him being able to rely on his technical ability when the ball is on the floor before he needs to head it most of the time.
As for his weight, this has been a topic of some discussion in the past as some critics claimed he was too bulky during his time with Chelsea. Some have suggested that this was one of the major reasons that he left the club in the first place, though this has never been officially confirmed by either party.
Nowadays, De Bruyne is a much leaner player and weighs just 70kg (for reference this is considered a very healthy weight when compared to the body mass index). It is expected that a player of De Bruyne’s level would be of a weight similar to this as sportspeople need a healthy weight to compete at the highest level.
Family
- Mother: Anna De Bruyne,
- Father: Herwig De Bruyne
- Sister: Stephanie De Bruyne
- Kids: Mason Milian, Suri, Rome De Bruyne
As we mentioned earlier, De Bruyne comes from the Ghent area of Belgium and is of course a Belgian national. His mother is also a Belgian citizen but spent a lot of time in the African nation of Burundi.
She also lived in the Ivory Coast for some time before settling in Belgium and giving birth to Kevin. His father was called Herwig and was a part of a large oil company in Africa, which is the reason the family spent so much time there in the past.
The name De Bruyne is synonymous with oil production on the continent, more so than it is with Soccer. It was not a typical upbringing for Kevin it must be said.
As for his wife, the two met in 2014 following a public spat between De Bruyne and his Belgian teammate Thibaut Courtois. It is said that Courtois stole De Bruyne’s previous girlfriend, and the issue still troubles the Belgian National team today.
Since then, Kevin and his now wife Michele Lacroix have been married since 2017 and now live in the UK with their three children.
Michele was born in 1993 and is currently 28 years old. The two met when the former liked a tweet by Kevin whilst he was on loan to German club Werder Bremen in 2014. The pair dated for three years before tying the knot after their move to England.
You can learn more about De Bruyne’s family in this post.
Children
- Mason Milian De Bruyne
- Suri De Bruyne
- Rome De Bruyne
Prior to their marriage in 2017, Kevin and Michele welcomed their first son into the world after the Belgian signed for Manchester City. Their first child Mason Millian was born on the 10th of March 2016, just as De Bruyne was hitting his stride for the Citizens.
Just two years later, the couple had the pleasure of welcoming another boy into society as Rome was born on Halloween (31st October) 2018, a doubly exciting birthday for him awaits as he gets older.
The youngest of their three children is two years younger than Rome having been born during the troubled year of 2020. The birth of their third son Suri will have gone some way to easing the pain of lockdown for the couple, yet perhaps added to the stresses that came with it.
De Bruyne is known for being incredibly close to his children and has been seen parading them around the Etihad Stadium alongside him following Manchester City’s recent Premier League title successes.
There we have it; all you need to know about the Belgian legend Kevin de Bruyne! His career path has been an interesting one, as have his childhood and love life. His children are the most important thing in his life, and you can be sure that this happy couple will be thinking about having more in the future.
Who knows one of them might be the next Premier League superstar in the making?