The maestro’s last bow

Before he became a star, Kevin De Bruyne was a boy from Ghent who gave his first television interview at the age of 10, on the eve of a Belgian Under-11 cup final.
Asked who his favourite team was, he answered without hesitation – Liverpool. His favourite player – Michael Owen.
“I’d love to play for them one day,” he told the camera, with the uncomplicated conviction of a child who had not yet learned that football rarely obliges your dreams in the shape you originally drew them. That boy grew up to become Manchester City’s all-time assist king. He never did play for Liverpool.
He spent the better part of his career dismantling them instead — which, in a different way, is its own form of devotion.
On a July evening in Los Angeles, Mikel Merino stole a late winner for Spain, Belgium were eliminated, and De Bruyne walked off an international pitch for what may well be the last time.  
The career, laid out plainly, defies easy summary.
Six Premier League titles. A UEFA Champions League crown. Sixteen major trophies across a decade at City that redefined what it meant to be a midfielder in the modern game.
The best minutes-per-assist ratio in Premier League history among players with 50 or more appearances bettering Mesut Ozil, Cesc Fabregas, Ryan Giggs and Dennis Bergkamp. 
The World Cup farewell was worthy of the man.
He scored against Egypt in the group stage, registered the most attempts at goal of any Belgian, and led his team’s crossing charts throughout the tournament.
In the quarter-final against Spain, recalled to the starting XI after being rested for the round of 16, he pushed and probed against a midfield built for suffocation.
Belgium started without captain Youri Tielemans, who suffered an injury during warmup, and lost Thibaut Courtois to injury in the second half and still very nearly held on.
One goalkeeper’s error, one Merino tap-in, and the dream dissolved.
What made De Bruyne’s presence at this tournament so remarkable was that he had refused to accept Qatar as his final chapter.
He led Belgium’s qualifying campaign with six goals and an assist in six matches — the highest-scoring midfielder in European World Cup qualifying, producing the most shots, joint-most accurate crosses, and second-most key passes among all midfielders across the entire European qualification process.
That too at 34.
Not the performance of a man in decline, but of one who understood, with a clarity that age occasionally grants, exactly what he still had to offer.
The great haunting absence at the centre of an otherwise complete career was always the World Cup itself.
Belgium came closest in 2018, reaching the semi-finals in Russia. Third place was the consolation.
Closest, as the saying goes, is not the same as there.
Virgil Van Dijk, who faced him more than most, was generous: “Kevin is a special, special player. It was always a difficult task to play against him.”