The last dance? Kevin De Bruyne briefly hinted at it after midnight in Cologne, talking about savouring every moment he has on the international stage and taking every opportunity to pass on his knowledge to Belgium’s younger players so they are ready, when the time comes, to go on without him.
But when pushed on this, he backtracked just as quickly, saying he “hadn’t really thought about whether this would be the end of the road”.
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Perhaps he was toying with us the way he had toyed with the Romania defence, leading Belgium to a crucial 2-0 victory to get their Euro 2024 campaign up and running. Perhaps he knows how long he has left with Belgium, with Manchester City, with football as a whole. Perhaps not.
But he had said enough, a week before his 33rd birthday, to reinforce the impression he may not have long left on the biggest stages, competing for the biggest prizes. He has only a year left on his contract at Manchester City and, a little surprisingly, has responded to interest from Saudi Arabia by talking of “incredible amounts of money in what may be the end of my career”. “At my age, you have to be open to everything,” he added.
His former Belgium team-mate Eden Hazard made similar noises before and during the last World Cup. He called time on his international career after Belgium’s elimination at the group stage and, having been released by Real Madrid, he announced his retirement last October, having turned down lucrative offers to move to Saudi Arabia.
The difference is that Hazard’s career had been in decline almost from the moment he joined Real Madrid four years earlier. Injuries had taken a toll. He was Belgium’s captain at the World Cup, but his spark had gone. He was dropped to the bench for the final game of a miserable campaign. It was sad to watch a great player like that, barely going through the motions.
By contrast, it was a joy to watch De Bruyne against Romania. He popped up all over the pitch (below), producing moments of creative brilliance throughout. Then, with Belgium’s 1-0 lead starting to look fragile, showed the bloody-mindedness to chase a long punt upfield and get to the ball first, poking it past Romania goalkeeper Florin Nita to secure the victory.
Belgium needed this. After a shock 1-0 defeat by Slovakia in their opening game, they needed to kickstart their campaign against Romania and avert the threat of another group-stage elimination. They made the perfect start, with Youri Tielemans firing them into the lead inside 73 seconds, but so many chances went begging — and Romelu Lukaku had another goal disallowed for a marginal offside — before De Bruyne settled their nerves in the closing stages.
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De Bruyne needed this, too. He had a difficult season at Manchester City. He missed almost five months through injury, then made a huge impact on his return before fading slightly. He was left out of big matches at home to Aston Villa and away to Real Madrid and was substituted in other big games, including just 10 minutes into the second half of the FA Cup final defeat by Manchester United.
He and his Belgium team-mates had performed better against Slovakia than the result suggested — but the pressure was on against Romania. That type of situation can occasionally stifle De Bruyne, as it seemed to at the World Cup in Qatar, but here, he responded with that familiar combination of silk and steely-eyed determination.
A highlight? Take your pick: a mesmerising, Lionel Messi-esque feint and dribble past Andrei Ratiu and Radu Dragusin before setting up Dodi Lukebakio, whose shot was saved; an audacious right-foot shot that curled just beyond the far post early in the second half; a slide-rule pass that bisected the Romania defence and sent Lukaku clear to beat Nita, only for the forward to be found marginally offside on closer inspection; the goal that showed the other side of De Bruyne’s game, refusing to take no for an answer.
By the end of the evening, he had recorded eight shot-creating actions, defined by Opta as one of the two final offensive actions (for example, a pass or a take-on) leading to a shot. That makes 18 across two matches. For context, the next highest totals at this tournament are his team-mate Jeremy Doku and Denmark’s Christian Eriksen (both 14) and Germany’s Toni Kroos (13). For further context, no France player has recorded more than seven and England’s highest is Jude Bellingham’s six.
In an ideal world, De Bruyne would sit out Belgium’s final group game against Ukraine on Wednesday, taking a well-earned rest before the knockout stage. But that isn’t an option when his team are still far from certain to progress. With all four teams in Group E locked on three points, that second goal against Romania could be crucial.
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Their goal difference column — and Romania’s — would look very different had Belgium been more clinical last night. For all their excellent build-up play, with Tielemans and Doku contributing in different ways, they were wasteful.
“It’s a disappointment when you consider the quantity of chances we have had over the two games,” Belgium coach Domenico Tedesco said. “Two goals is a lot less (than you would expect to score from those chances). It’s fantastic that we create these chances and stay patient, but we have to stay patient for longer, that’s for sure.”
Some will point fingers at Lukaku, who is yet to get off the mark at this tournament, but he did so much right in making runs and occupying Romania’s defenders. He was unfortunate against Slovakia when he had two goals disallowed due to debatable calls — an offside and a handball — against team-mates. Last night, he seemed to have timed his run perfectly to score Belgium’s second goal midway through the second half, only for the semi-automated offside technology to find he was a toe’s length in front of his opponent.
But what stood out upon watching the replay — even more than Lukaku’s stray toe — was the pass from his captain. It was classic De Bruyne, vision and precision. He has the quality to keep playing at this level for years, but he keeps making casual suggestions that his time is running out. If this is to be his last dance at international level, he is not ready to leave the stage yet.
(Top photo: Bruno Fahy/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)
