‘Ginger lad’ Kevin De Bruyne trained at Arsenal aged 12 but failed to impress

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    • Kevin De Bruyne will go down as the Premier League’s greatest playmaker ever when all is said and done.

    The Manchester City star, now 31, is on course to break his own tally for assists in a single Premier League season (20), needing just two more to reach the record shared with Arsenal legend Thierry Henry (2002/03).

    Arsenal know all too well about De Bruyne’s extra-terrestrial ability. The midfielder carved them open time and time again as a marauding second striker in April’s 4-1 drubbing and was unlucky to leave the field with just the two goals and an assist.

    READ MORE: Three new names inducted into Premier League Hall of Fame – including Arsenal legend

    Yet the Gunners’ troubles could have all been avoided.

    As with most cases when it comes to football, the gift of hindsight is more often a curse. That is true for former Arsenal assistant academy manager Roy Massey.

    Massey, whose time at Arsenal from 1998-2014 encompassed the club’s golden era, helped unearth many a gem at Hale End – including Jack Wilshere, Bukayo Saka and Reiss Nelson. Yet even the best talent spotters in the business sometimes fail to identify a future world-beater, even if that Belgian midfield maestro is right under their noses.

    Speaking exclusively to Daily Star Sport, Massey, 79, remembers a quiet and polite young lad who once graced the pitches at Arsenal’s Hale End, located in Walthamstow next to the roundabout where the A406 and A112 meet.

    Massey recalled: “We knew his mum who was looking after us when we went to Genk to play in a tournament. She said 'Oh, my lad Kevin is an Arsenal fan' and she was a fan herself so we got on very well.

    Do you think Kevin De Bruyne would be the same player he is today if he had joined Arsenal? Let us know in the comments section.

    “She saw us the following year as well and when we were leaving she said 'Roy, we're coming over to London, could my lad come and do some training with you during the holidays?’ I said of course and he came along for a week.”

    A 12-year-old De Bruyne arrived in London eager to make an impression. He was thrown into the mix with players in his age group, a confident and talented bunch that included the likes of Wilshere and Emmanuel Frimpong.

    Shocking as it may be today, Massey did not believe De Bruyne – two times Premier League Player of the Season – to be especially talented.

    “You wouldn't have seen what he was going to be,” Massey explained. “As with anybody who was eight or nine or 10, 11, 12, to predict how good they're going to be in 10 years time was very difficult.

    “We saw him play and he did well, but we had stronger players. Don't forget, you come from Belgium, and you're only 11 or 12 years of age, you come to Arsenal and you're overwhelmed by the occasion and all the players in training.

    “They were already confident and they were buzzing, and they were in their own environment. It was difficult for him to show that sort of ability that might take him to being a world class player.

    “We told his mum that he'd done very well and wished him well and maybe we'd see how he gets on in the future.

    “It was only years later to be quite honest when my colleague Steve Leonard said ‘Roy, do you know that ginger haired lad that used to come to Hale End?' That's Kevin De Bruyne'. So that's another one that went through, if we had a crystal ball then we'd be well away.”

    By that stage in his career, De Bruyne had already become a household name. He overcame adversity at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho, who publicly criticised a performance against Swindon and didn’t grant him the minutes he wanted.

    Following a loan spell at Werder Bremen, De Bruyne joined Bundesliga side Wolfsburg in January 2014. He enjoyed his breakout season the following 2014/15 campaign with 16 goals and 27 assists.

    Now, his hoard of trophies and records in English football speak for themselves. The Manchester City talisman’s accomplishments under Pep Guardiola are matched only by the enjoyment fans get from watching his incisive passes, purposeful strides and extraordinary IQ in action.

    For that, the credit must go to the stubbornly ambitious ‘ginger-haired lad’ himself and his manager, who elevated a talent many did not know was brewing under the surface.

    Buy 'A Life in Football and a Coach to the Stars', by Roy Massey, with Mark Metcalf – out now from Pitch Publishing

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