Kevin de Bruyne is poised to lead the Belgium national team in Euro 2024. It’s likely to be the final European championship for the 33-year-old midfielder, who is slowly approaching the final stretch of his memorable career.
Fortunately for De Bruyne, he’s going to have some valuable engine in the midfield alongside him in Everton star Amadou Onana.
The duo are going to form the core strength of the team and play vital roles in getting the best out of the three forwards in Roberto Mancini’s 4-3-3 style.
It appears that De Bruyne and Onana have become good buddies off the pitch as well and are definitely on the same wavelength together.
Ahead of Euro 2024, De Bruyne was honored with the ‘Best Belgian Player Abroad’ at the 2023 Belgian Football Awards.
This marked his fourth such award and saw him win it for the third straight year. In doing so, he also beat the likes of Onana, Romelu Lukaku and Leandro Trossard.
The Everton midfielder was clearly happy to see his captain win the award, but decided to share a little banter with him over it too.
In a clip released on his Snapchat, Onana was seen holding onto the ‘Best Belgium Player Abroad’ award and teasing De Bruyne.
The Everton star states that the award is now his own after changing his name to ‘Kevin de Bruyne’ as homage to the Belgian legend.
The Manchester City star didn’t seem to have any problem with it, but delivered a reply laced in dark humor.
De Bruyne smilingly told Onana “c’est Kevin le noir eh”, which when translated into English results in “It’s Kevin the Black”.
Onana says the trophy is his now and that he has changed his name to Kevin De Bruyne and then kevin goes "it's kevin the black" 😭😭😭😭😭
— Lili ᰔᩚ (@hangitinthelouv) June 3, 2024
The 33-year-old Manchester City midfielder is quite a quirky character outside the pitch and his answer shows how unfiltered he can be in the company of his beloved teammates.
De Bruyne’s hilarious reaction is attracting a lot of love among the Manchester City and Belgium fans, who are praising him for how sweetly he delivered his response and his likeable nature.
Even though there is fear among some fans that Kevin might be ‘cancelled’ for his dark humour, Onana did not seem to be offended by his comment at all. The Everton midfielder is actually a stark admirer of his senior teammate in Belgium.
Onana has been clear about his personal opinion that De Bruyne is one of the best to have ever graced professional football.
Earlier in the 2023/24 season, he told Premier League’s official YouTube channel: “For me personally and this is my honest opinion, he’s probably one of the best midfielders ever, that’s ever played the game, to me. Playing with him in the national team obviously, an unbelievable player for me. He’s just different, man. He’s just different because I feel like he sees the game with different eyes. He sees things that we normal people don’t see. For me, he’s a genius.”
Belgium fans will hope that De Bruyne and Onana’s loveable chemistry can also reflect positively on the pitch during Euro 2024.
They’ll hope that the two midfielders, who should complement each other perfectly with a mix of creativity, steel and energy, are able to carry Belgium to strong results.
The midfield duo will be expected to come up clutch in the biggest matches and guide Belgium to finally break their international trophy duck in the Euros.