{"id":275173,"date":"2025-07-19T16:37:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T16:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/275173\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T16:37:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T16:37:16","slug":"de-bruyne-on-wearing-maradonas-retired-no-10-shirt-at-napoli-im-my-own-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/275173\/","title":{"rendered":"De Bruyne on wearing Maradona\u2019s retired no.10 shirt at Napoli: \u2018I\u2019m my own player\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kevin<\/p>\n

Kevin De Bruyne on first day of Napoli pre-season training, July 15, 2025. <\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n

Kevin De Bruyne commented on the decision to have the iconic no.10 jersey bestowed upon him during his first few days of Napoli training after his summer move from Manchester City, suggesting that it is a major \u2018honour\u2019 to take the t number previously retired in honour of the legendary Diego Maradona, but adding: \u2018I\u2019m my own player\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

De Bruyne has been training with Napoli for the last week after sealing a move to the Stadio Maradona on a free transfer<\/a> after a 10-year spell in the Premier League with Manchester City, during which time he won six league titles, two FA Cups, five league cups and the UEFA Champions League.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Belgian was officially unveiled in front of the press on Saturday, and sat down for his introductory press conference<\/a> in the afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

De Bruyne on wearing Maradona\u2019s no.10 shirt at Napoli\"MANCHESTER,MANCHESTER, ENGLAND \u2013 MAY 02: Kevin De Bruyne of Manchester City celebrates scoring his team\u2019s first goal during the Premier League match between Manchester City FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers FC at Etihad Stadium on May 02, 2025 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Carl Recine\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Reporters at De Bruyne\u2019s first Napoli press conference asked about the photographs that circulated earlier in the week<\/a>, showing the former City star wearing Maradona\u2019s retired no.10 in training.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say I was a bit surprised in the beginning, because I knew that the number was retired, but in another way it\u2019s an honour. It\u2019s an honour from the team and from the club to give me this responsibility,\u201d De Bruyne said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"KevinKevin De Bruyne on first day of Napoli pre-season training, July 15, 2025.<\/p>\n

He went on to explain that a shirt number does not add any more pressure for a player at his level, because \u2018the pressure comes from itself if you play for a big team like Napoli\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it adds any more pressure,\u201d De Bruyne added. \u201cI think the pressure comes from itself. If you play for big teams like Napoli, the pressure will be there. There\u2019s a team that wants to win, you know what you have to do as a player and a squad, but I don\u2019t believe that a number or anything else will add to the pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMaradona is Maradona, he\u2019s one of the legends of the game and he\u2019s synonymous with Napoli anyway. I\u2019m grateful, I\u2019m proud, but I\u2019m my own player. I\u2019m going to try and do the job the best I can do and hopefully I can bring pleasure to the team, to the city and to the fans and get some good performances in there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\tPost navigation
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin De Bruyne on first day of Napoli pre-season training, July 15, 2025. Kevin De Bruyne commented…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[94,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-275173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114880882187944143","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}