De Bruyne: No Big Egos in Man City Dressing Room

De Bruyne attributes their success to the humble and grounded personalities of both current and former teammates.

“In the 10 years I’ve been here, I’ve seen many great players, but I’ve not seen many egos,” said De Bruyne to City's podcast team.

“I feel like everybody knows that everybody’s important.

“I know that if I can’t play for three weeks and I know that if the guy who plays in my position plays really good, he deserves it.

“So I need to know to handle myself in the right way towards my team-mates and everybody else to conduct yourself right on and off the pitch. It makes life so much easier.

“Sometimes there’s bust-ups, but there has to be arguments or fights or whatever but it never goes outside and I love it.”

The Belgian, on being fully fit this term, also said: “I feel like being out for six months, people think you come back and you’re going to be like this (perfect),” De Bruyne said.

“Obviously, Newcastle was great but then there were some games when my body was really hurting because I’ve not done this for six months.

“I knew that after these pains from coming back, I knew I needed a really good Euros where I was physically top and then a break.

“And now I feel I’m back to what I was before so let’s hope it keeps going.”