De Bruyne: “When I was 14, I left my parents to join Genk training center.

The first year I ended up in a large boarding school, where you sleep with everyone – De Bruyne

By Ademola Bashorun

Fortunately, the second year, I was with a host family. But things didn’t go as planned.

I’m someone who is fine on my own, I’m kind of shy. I thought everything was fine, at the end of the year, everything was going well. My foster parents never had to go to school for problems, academic or disciplinary. I said goodbye to them without knowing what was going to happen. ⠀

Then one day I come home and my parents were sad, they were crying, I asked, ‘what’s wrong?’, And there they told me that my host family didn’t want more of me. I asked them why and they said it was ‘because of who you are’. I did not understand. ‘You are difficult to pin down, you are very calm. You have trouble interacting with the other children. They just find you difficult ‘. ⠀

It’s not nice to hear that when you’re 15 or 16. That day, I kicked the ball against a wall for hours. I told myself that everything was going to be fine, and that in a few months I would be in the first team and that I would no longer experience failure. ⠀

When I came back after the summer, I was in the B team and I told my parents that in two months I will be in the first team. I trained like crazy, I had fire in me. It was as if I had gone mad. I remember we were playing on a Friday night, I was a substitute. I came on in the second half and I scored five goals. That day changed my history be in the club and I joined the first team.”⠀⠀

De Bruyne

Happy 31st birthday to Kevin De Bruyne!