{"id":90234,"date":"2025-05-10T14:14:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T14:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/90234\/"},"modified":"2025-05-10T14:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T14:14:10","slug":"kevin-de-bruyne-dreamed-of-playing-for-liverpool-and-virgil-van-dijk-wanted-to-make-it-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/90234\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin De Bruyne dreamed of playing for Liverpool and Virgil van Dijk wanted to make it happen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin De Bruyne and Virgil van Dijk have been rivals for years – but only on the pitch. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Reports emerged on Wednesday night that Liverpool were considering a sensational swoop for the departing Man City star, although talkSPORT understands these are wide of the mark.<\/p>\n

\"Van<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Van Dijk and De Bruyne have made 735 combined appearances for their current clubs<\/p>\n

However, there was a time when Reds captain Van Dijk – and De Bruyne himself – were desperate to make this happen. <\/p>\n

The two have formed a strong friendship despite Liverpool<\/a> and Manchester City<\/a>‘s fierce battles for Premier League<\/a> titles.<\/p>\n

The Belgian has on multiple occasions confessed he grew up as a Liverpool fan and Van Dijk has revealed how badly he wants to play alongside De Bruyne.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite club is Liverpool and my favorite player is Michael Owen<\/a>,\u201d an 11-year-old De Bruyne admitted in old video footage. \u201cAnd I would love to play there one day.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE ABOUT LIVERPOOL<\/p>\n

In an interview with Match of the Day magazine in 2019, he said: \u201cI was a Liverpool fan. My family that live in England were all Liverpool supporters so I was, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved Michael Owen, because I was really small like him and quick, too. I compared myself to him at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2022, after a 2-2 draw the Man City talisman let it slip that he sees the Liverpool defender \u2018a lot\u2019.<\/p>\n

One reason being that their children go to the same school.<\/p>\n

They also seem to bond over their admiration for electronic music, as they have been pictured partying in Ibiza, meeting up with DJ Calvin Harris on the Balearic Island.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking with Gary Neville<\/a> on The Overlap that same year, Van Dijk chose De Bruyne as the one rival player he wanted to have in his team.<\/p>\n

\"De<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

De Bruyne entered the top flight in 2015 with Van Dijk following three years later<\/p>\n

A year later the two were seen on holiday alongside Nathan Ake who is Van Dijk\u2019s Dutch teammate and De Bruyne\u2019s club colleague.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And in 2024, De Bruyne returned the favour stating that he wants to play with Van Dijk, who has \u2018everything\u2019.<\/p>\n

Both were scheduled for their contracts to run out this summer at their respective clubs. <\/p>\n

Van Dijk signed a two year contract with Liverpool<\/a> worth up to \u00a3400,000, while De Bruyne was allowed to leave the Etihad. <\/p>\n

The Belgian is arguably Man City\u2019s best ever player, having won six Premier League titles, five Carabao Cups, two FA Cups and a Champions League, during his ten years at the club.<\/p>\n

De Bruyne could add another FA Cup<\/a> to the pile if his side beat Crystal Palace<\/a> later this month.<\/p>\n

He can do it all! Danny Murphy names the PERFECT Kevin De Bruyne replacement for Manchester City<\/p>\n

In 418 appearances, he has netted 108 goals and assisted 177.<\/p>\n

He also refused to rule out a move to another Premier League club <\/a>so it would not be impossible for Liverpool to sign the 33-year-old.<\/p>\n

However, talkSPORT understands it is far from likely to happen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin De Bruyne and Virgil van Dijk have been rivals for years – but only on the pitch.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,1858,179,16,15,1465],"class_list":{"0":"post-90234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-kevin-de-bruyne","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-virgil-van-dijk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114483957864296793","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90234","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=90234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}