What’s the story?
While Eden Hazard might the most popular Belgian footballer, the award for the best one has gone to Manchester City midfielder, Kevin De Bruyne. The former Wolfsburg midfielder was handed the award for the Best Belgian player in the world and, to make things even better, he took it from the hands of legendary Arsenal forward, Thierry Henry.
Kevin De Bruyne, who has scored 4 goals and assisted 9 more in 23 Premier League games, has been an essential cog in Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City team so far this season.
In case you didn’t know…
This is not the first time that the former Chelsea starlet has won the award as he was honoured with the same title last year too. De Bruyne now becomes only the third player to win the accolade two times, with Thibaut Courtois and former Belgium manager, Marc Wilmots the only other people to do so.
The heart of the matter
The City star was miles ahead of his nearest opponent, Eden Hazard, who is also going through a brilliant vein of form this season under new manager, Antonio Conte. The former Lille winger came second with 164 points—a staggering 114 points behind Kevin De Bruyne.
Third place was taken by Atletico Madrid’s star, Yannick Carrasco, followed by Tottenham Hotspurs’ Toby Alderweireld (who was the only defender in the top 10) and Napoli’s in-form forward, Dries Mertens.
The next 5 players on the list are Roma’s Radja Naingollan, Everton’s Romelu Lukaku, Chelsea’s Thibaut Courtois and Michy Batshuayi, and Tottenham’s Mousa Dembele. The other half of Spurs’ sturdy defence, Jan Vertonghen, found himself just outside the top 10 as he sits at number 11.
Sportskeeda’s take
Given that Eden Hazard wasn’t in the best of forms for the first part of the year, giving the award to Kevin De Bruyne was the right decision to make. The Manchester City midfielder has been one of the most consistent players in the world for over three years now and certainly deserves all the praise that is being bestowed upon him now.
