page_title: Kevin De Bruyne
section_title: 2015–16 season
hierarchical_section_title: Kevin De Bruyne / Club career / Manchester City / 2015–16 season
caption_attribution_description: Kevin de Bruyne playing for Manchester City in 2016
context_page_description: Kevin De Bruyne is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Manchester City and the Belgian national team. Recognized for his exceptional passing, shooting ability and dribbling, he is widely considered to be one of the best players in the world and has often been described as a "complete" footballer.
  De Bruyne began his career at Genk, where he was a regular player when they won the 2010–11 Belgian Pro League. In 2012, he joined English club Chelsea, where he was used sparingly and then loaned to Werder Bremen. He signed with Wolfsburg for £18 million in 2014, where he established himself as one of the best players in the Bundesliga and was integral in the club's 2014–15 DFB-Pokal win. In the summer of 2015, De Bruyne joined Manchester City for a club record £54 million. He has since won two Premier League titles, four League Cups and an FA Cup with the club. In 2017–18, he had a significant role in Manchester City's record in becoming the only Premier League team to attain 100 points in a single season. In 2019–20, De Bruyne tied the record for most assists in a Premier League season and was awarded Player of the Season.
context_section_description: On 30 August 2015, Manchester City announced the arrival of De Bruyne on a six-year contract, for a reported club-record fee of £55 million (€75 million), making him the second most expensive transfer in British football history after Ángel Di María's move to Manchester United in 2014. He made his debut for the team in the Premier League on 12 September against Crystal Palace, replacing injured Sergio Agüero in the 25th minute. On 19 September, he scored his first goal for the club against West Ham United in first half stoppage time in an eventual 2–1 loss. He went on to score in a 4–1 League Cup win against Sunderland, on 22 September and a 4–1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on 26 September. On 3 October, he scored in the team's 6–1 win against Newcastle United.
  On 2 October, De Bruyne was announced as one of the players on the longlist for the prestigious FIFA Ballon d'Or award, alongside such teammates as Sergio Agüero and Yaya Touré. Just 18 days later, on 20 October he was revealed by FIFA as one of the players on the 23-man shortlist for the Ballon d'Or. On 21 October, De Bruyne scored an injury-time winner against Sevilla in the UEFA Champions League, to take City within one point of group leaders Juventus, with three games remaining. On 1 December, he scored a brace in a 4–1 win over Hull City to send Manchester City through to the semi-finals of the Football League Cup.
  
  On 27 January 2016, De Bruyne scored a goal in a League Cup semi-final 3–1 victory over Everton, but sustained an injury to his right knee that would keep him out of the team for two months. On 2 April, De Bruyne made his return from injury in a 4–0 win against Bournemouth at Dean Court, scoring the team's second goal in the twelfth minute. Four days later, he scored the opening goal in a 2–2 draw with Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League quarter-final first-leg at the Parc des Princes. On 12 April, De Bruyne scored the winning goal against Paris Saint-Germain, advancing Manchester City to the Champions League semi-finals, for the first time in the club's history, on an aggregate score of 3–2. Writing in The Independent, Mark Ogden said, "It was a stunning goal from the Belgian, who took a touch to control the ball before curling it beyond Kevin Trapp from the edge of the penalty area." De Bruyne's next goal came on 8 May 2016 in a 2–2 draw with Arsenal, although the result left City's Champions League qualification hopes out of their own hands.
caption: De Bruyne during a match against Hull City on 26 December 2016.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-WX500", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "PaintShop Photo Pro 13.00", "Image DateTime": "2016:12:31 09:08:24", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "272", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "984", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6661", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "32/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:12:26 19:16:10", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:12:26 19:16:10", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "5777/1280", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "343/64", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "123", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "808", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "943", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "842", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "720", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}